Perthshire Rugby Club are kicked out of the game

Oct 16 2009 by Les Stewart, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

Hillhead/Jordanhill 42

Perthshire 9

ONCE again, the score line flattered the opposition as Shire slumped to another defeat after taking a convincing lead.

The early stages of this match all belonged to Shire as they outplayed Hills in all aspects of the game, despite falling behind to an early penalty.

Wayne Matson kicked three penalties for the Perth side, which reflected the domination of the visitors to this superb stadium at Hughenden.

Because of the recent results, the Eagles have become a nervous team and when all their pressure didn't yield any tries, they became a bit dispirited and no matter what they tried in attack it just didn't quite come off.

Shire's pace men, Craig Assenti and Erlend Oag, didn't get a sniff of the ball and Shire resorted to kicking the ball into the Hillhead half and picked off the penalties as Hills felt that giving away penalties was preferable to giving away tries.

Shire broke clear from their own line but somehow or another Hillhead stole the ball and, with Shire's defence at sixes and sevens, they managed to find a huge gap to score the first try.

The referee then yellow carded Andy Elder and Shire were down to 14 men. Hillhead moved up a gear as they sensed a breakthrough.

They converted a penalty but the killer blow came when yet another simple try was conceded.

A scrum in Shire's 2 was won by Hillhead and the entire Shire back row and scrum half were posted missing as the Hillhead No 8 picked up and strode over the line with no Perthshire player near him.

From then on, Shire's heads visibly went down and they had no answer as another three tries were run in to consign Perthshire to the bottom of the league.

One positive aspect of the game was the vastly reduced number of penalties conceded by Shire and, if the defence can be water tight for nearly 40 minutes, there is no reason for it not to be so for the whole 80 minutes.

There are many theories for Shire's lowly league position this season but, with more than half last year's team having left to go to pastures new, they were always going to find it difficult to compete successfully.

A large number of players are just finding their feet at this level and the fact that they can compete with every team they have played against for large parts of the game shows that they have the necessary skills.

The problem could well lie in a lack of confidence and lack of fitness in several key players.

Tomorrow's game against Garnock is at home and Shire's supporters can make a huge difference to this young side by turning out in numbers to offer their support.

It will only take a couple of wins to propel the team back up the leaguer where they belong and this team certainly has the capability to do just that.

The players need to see supporters turning out in numbers again and those that do will hopefully be rewarded with a rousing victory. Kick-off is at 3pm.