Strong Oban squad secures away points
Oban Lorne Rugby Club travelled to play Bishopton last weekend, their final away fixture of the season, looking for another win to keep them in the hunt for second place in West Division 2.
With Craig Wright and Fergus McCoss unavailable, Iwan Roberts returned to centre and Finlay Carmichael to stand-off, with Graham MacEachen taking the full back position and youngsters Kieron Morrison and Robert Maclaughlin on the wings.
After a bright start and early possession, an Oban knock-on allowed Bishopton to break clear and, after a number of missed tackles, they crossed the Oban line for a try.
This was not the start Oban had wanted and they were soon to go further behind when Bishopton were awarded a penalty in front of the Oban posts. This was easily converted and Oban found themselves eight points down.
Oban did not panic and got into the rhythm of the game with the loose forwards linking well with the backs to create opportunities.
A well-struck penalty kick by Finlay Carmichael got Oban on the board to make it 8-3.
Oban continued to press and Stephen Povey, playing in the front row, scored Oban’s first try after finding space out wide and crossing in the corner.
Finlay Carmichael was on target with the conversion to extend Oban’s lead to 10-8.
Next on the scoreboard was Kieron Morrison, with the coaching team hoping his quick feet and sidestep would be well-used.
After great movement from the forwards took play deep into the Bishopton 22, Carmichael noticed the narrowed defence and his pin point kick allowed the young winger to gather the ball over the line to score his first senior try.
In the second half Bishopton were next to score, though, when the referee awarded another penalty in front of the post and this was again converted to make the score 22-11 to Oban.
After a line break from captain Roberts, Lorne cruised over behind the posts to give Carmichael an easy conversion – 29-11. The next try was even better when a wellworked move off the back of the scrum saw McDonald pick the ball up and take the scrum half out of play allowing MacLachlan to once again cross the line under the posts. These two tries capped off a man-of-the-match performance for MacLachlan, with him winning a number of turnovers for the Oban team linking up well with the backs and generally being a thorn in the Bishopton side all game.
With 20 minutes to go, the coaches made a couple of changes to try and freshen up the attack. Calum MacLachlan was introduced and wasted no time in showing how difficult he is to stop, with a number of great carries taking numerous defenders to try and stop him.
The second row pairing of Eric Roberts and Kyle Graham got through a power of work in attack and defence.
With Oban continuing to control the majority of the possession, the last try of the day came from young centre David Cameron burst an attempted tackle to score under the posts, again giving Carmichael another easy conversion for a final score of 36-11.