Oban back on track
Oban Lorne Rugby Football Club welcomed mid table Clydebank to Glencruitten on Saturday for the first time in more than four years on a glorious autumnal day.
Oban were looking to get back on track after last weekend’s disappointing defeat away to promotion rivals Uddingston and knew that Clydebank were going to be a difficult test as they had been on a decent run of results.
Oban only made a couple of changes from the previous week’s defeat with Finlay Carmichael returning to the starting line-up at stand off and Eric Roberts returning to the boiler room in the second row.
The home side started brightly and were on the scoreboard within the first two minutes. The kick off was received well from the start and passed to Calum MacLachlan, who took off down the centre of the pitch bouncing people out of the way left, right and centre. Noone could tackle the big prop and when he was eventually halted a couple of yards out from the line, the ball was popped up for vice captian Stephen Povey to cross for Oban’s first try of the game. This was duly converted by Finlay Carmichael to give Oban a 7-0 lead.
Oban were on the front foot straight from the kick off with the ball being shipped wide for Craig Wright to sprint down the wing for the first of his tries of the afternoon.
The men in green were rampant at this stage of the game and two further tries were scored in quick succession with Oban crossing for the bonus point score after only 15 minutes of the game played.
Oban were breaking the line with ease and once in behind the Clydebank defence were unstoppable. Four further tries were scored in quick succession.
The main talking point of the match came about five minutes before halftime when Calum MacLachlan was taken out beside the ruck and in attempting to remove himself from the illegal tackle was alleged to have stamped on the opposition player. This led to an almighty brawl with a number of punches being thrown.
When things had calmed down the referee sent off Maclachlan and the Clydebank number six for the punches before the half time whistle to give a half time score of Oban 45 – Clydebank 0.
This was the performance the team had been searching for the last few weeks with fast mini rucks and accurate passing into space making it hard for the defence to get organised.
Half time changes saw the second row combo of Kyle Graham and Eric Roberts replaced by Matt Walker and Lorne Sinclair and the introduction of Callum Murray onto the wing in place of Roddy Morrison.
Oban struggled to match the intensity of the first 40 minutes and allowed Clydebank into the game with a soft score from a short range lineout.
This galvanised the Oban team which were soon back to their try scoring feats with a further four tries in the second half. Some outstanding tries were scored with Oban mixing play between forwards and backs to great effect.
Craig Wright was to finish with four tries for the day bringing his total for the season so far to 19 tries (95 points) in eight games, a fantastic achievement and not even half way through the season.
There was an early contender for try of the season when, after some great interplay between the forwards, young Lorne Sinclair broke free from inside the Oban 22 and broke a couple of tackles to take play to halfway and then offloaded the ball to Stanley Lister who sprinted in to score a great try. The prop showed he has lost none of his back row pace after being moved into the front row this season.
There were some outstanding performances from Oban players on the day including Calum MacLachlan, before his red card; Stanley Lister, the second row pairing of Roberts and Graham showing a lot of promise, massive shift from the back row with Owen McDonald pulling the strings and Stephen Povey leading from the front with some fantastic broken field running. The halfback partnership of Divers and Carmichael and the threat out wide from Craig Wright also impressed.
Man of the match though was Lorne MacLachlan, who chased and harried and turned over a lot of the Clydebank ball. The challenge for places in the back row is such that no-one is guaranteed a start and this appears to be bringing the best out of the players.
In the end, a convincing 71-7 victory for Oban Lorne which seemed to be the theme for the weekend with the U18s and U16s both involved in high scoring games away to Strathaven.
Great things are on the ho-
rizon, with the conveyor belt starting to turn.
A number of players have already broken through into the senior side this year and there are at least another half dozen or so really good players waiting in the wings to come through.
Oban Lorne had extra reason to celebrate as the club was awarded the Scottish Rugby Club of the Month award for August/September, a fantastic achievement for everyone at the club.
This Saturday, Oban Lorne are at home again when they welcome fourth placed Bishopton RFC to Glencruitten. The teams have not met in more than a decade with Bishopton only being recently promoted into the division. The ‘Bish’ lost out 48-0 to Uddingston at home last weekend meaning this should be a winnable game for Oban Lorne.
Kick-off this Saturday at Glencruitten is 2pm, along with the U18s and U16s who are also at home against Stewartry RFC.
The Wales v Scotland autumn international will be shown live in the clubhouse on Saturday.
All local rugby supporters are welcome to come along and enjoy Saturday’s busy day of rugby at Glencruitten.