Dalziel miss out on national semis
GREENOCK....................................23 DALZIEL.........................................12 Ben Ramage Dalziel travelled to Scotstoun Stadium, home of the Glasgow Warriors, to play Greenock Wanderers in the West Regional Shield final.
The winner would progress to the National Shield semi-finals in March and a shot at playing at Murrayfield in April.
Early in the match Dalziel put pressure on a Greenock ruck and Fraser Mckenzie was able to snag scrum-half Andrew Mcdougall and disrupt the ball.
The ball was put into touch on the halfway line and from the line out Graham Calder put a kick in over the top. Winger Pierre Casassus gathered and looked like he was in for the score but he had knocked on as he gathered and play was called back.
Murray Macdonald broke through the Dalziel midfield and moved play into the Dalziel half. Dalziel were pinged for a high tackle and Graham Hogg converted to open the scoring after 23 minutes.
Within two minutes Greenock had scored the opening try of the afternoon. Dalziel put the kick-off directly into touch and from the resultant scrum the ball was passed blind to Leigh Tyley.
The full back got on the outside of Casassus before offloading back inside to Chris Mccarron. The winger then had a easy run in to score. Hogg converted and Greenock were 10-0 up.
On the half-hour mark Dalziel gave away another penalty and Hogg again kicked the points to extend his side’s lead to 13 points.
With less than five minutes left to go in the first half, Dalziel attacked down the right and looked to have lost momentum when the ball was knocked on in the tackle. At the scrum Greenock engaged early, giving Dalziel a free kick. There was then more back chat from the Greenock pack and Ellison marched them back a further 10 metres.
Calder tapped the ball and Alan Bowles charged towards the line. The number eight was stopped with a solid hit and this continued for another three phases with Mckenzie, George Sloan and Bowles all making valuable inches towards the line.
Ellison spotted an infringement and gave Dalziel penalty advantage but it was not required as Calder spotted a gap and sniped over for a try. Glover was unable to convert but Dalziel were back in the game at 13-5.
Greenock had the upper hand in the opening exchanges of the second half but Dalziel were able to keep them from scoring.
Play moved to the Greenock 10 metre line, where Dalziel attacked from a scrum. Greenock turned the ball over just inside their 22 but took too long for the clearance kick and Andrew Davidson charged it down.
The ball broke to Glover and the full back dived over the line for Dalziel’s second try. He added the extras and Dalziel were only a point behind at 13-12.
Dalziel were penalised for not rolling away and Hogg converted the penalty to take the score to 1612.
Greenock were camped inside their half when Guthrie put in a high kick. Glover was not able to get into a position to catch the ball cleanly and it took a wicked bounce off the artificial surface.
Scott Bellew got boot to ball and hacked it through. Mcdougall gathered and passed to Douglas Mcintyre The second row offloaded to Martin Lavelle and it looked like Ryan Burrell had done enough to stop the try but the number eight returned the ball to Mcintyre for the score in the corner.
Hogg again converted and Greenock were now 23-12 ahead.
Dalziel had 10 minutes left to get back into it but, despite retaining possession for the majority of the remainder time, were unable to find a way through.
Despite the result, Dalziel were encouraged with their performance.