Eagles slide into reverse at Irvine

Dec 19 2008 by Les Stewart, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

Irvine 17

Perthshire 10

IT HAS only been three months since the Perthshire Eagles ran riot against Irvine, scoring 50 points.

But the side’s weekend meeting bore no resemblance to September's fixture, as Irvine have strengthened their side, while Shire appear to have slipped into reverse.

The first half was a dour affair with no team looking like breaking the deadlock until James Fleming gave Shire the lead with a well-stuck penalty.

Irvine hit back and, after securing good line-out ball, they moved it quickly out to centre Kenny who strode over for the opening try.

Shire's forwards started the game in tremendous fashion, destroying the Irvine scrum and winning more than their share of line-out ball.

Irvine countered this by changing their front row and the switch caused Shire to loose their domination.

Irvine employed good, old-fashioned, rush defence and the Eagles were given no time before they were up-ended by fierce Irvine tackles.

They relied on long kicks out of defence which failed to find touch and only provided Irvine with yet more attacking opportunities.

Early in the second period, one of the Irvine centres moved up too quickly and left a gap in defence.

Powerful winger Matt Smith forced his way through and showed the cover defence a clean pair of heels before touching down in-between the posts. The try was converted by Fleming.

There were several promising individual breaks from Fleming, Smith and Anderson later in the half, but there was no overall cohesion about their play and the incisive breaks of the absent Craig Assenti were sorely missed.

Shire's misery was compounded when they stole a line-out ball, only to see it spilled at half back, allowing the on-rushing Fillander to score an easy try for Irvine.

In the last quarter they grabbed a controversial try out-wide from Kenny and Shire's Ross Browne was given a yellow card for his protestations.

Perthshire will now re-group for another away fixture at Falkirk tomorrow.

Falkirk are strong promotion contenders and only a fully-committed performance from the Eagles will be acceptable.

Coaches have asked that players meet at 11am, leaving at 11.15am

Perthshire’s second side are at home tomorrow, with the Golden Eagles featuring recent stars of the 1st XV such as Allan Brown, Andy Ritchie, Dave Rankin and Andy Cummins.

They will be trying to prove they have not lost any of their skills. KO; 2pm.

Stars for merit: ***Ali Anderson (sponsored by AGSC Distribution); ** Matt Smith (sponsored by Campus Sports); * Neil Drummond (sponsored by AC Management Consulting)