Howe of Fife 33 Perthshire 17

Oct 29 2010 Perthshire Advertiser Friday

Howe of Fife 33

Perthshire 17

WHAT does Shire have to do to win a match?

They dominated large swathes of this game but failed to turn any of it into points.

Shire’s forwards had the advantage over their opponents but the backs couldn’t convert any of the possession they got into points and this was evidenced by Perthshire’s two tries being scored by prop, Ryan Hood and back rower, Dan Cashman.

Howe stormed into a 12 point lead within 10 minutes and quickly realised that their backs could take advantage of poor defensive play by Shire’s backs.

Perthshire’s forwards led by the superb Garry Coull made huge inroads into Howe’s defence and non stop pressure resulted in a penalty attempt by Steele which hit the posts and bounded back into play.

Shire were first to react and yan Hood, driven by the rest of his pack, steamed over for the try converted by Steele.

Steele then added another penalty as Shire hiked up the pressure but once again it was looking ominous when they couldn’t score any points despite having the lion’s share of the ball.

Howe’s impressive backs had literally three runs at Shire and came away with three tries to give them a 19 -10 half time lead.

At the start of the 2nd half Garry Coull led by example as Shire won a scrum against the head. The big No 8 galloped up the blind before releasing Ross Angus and he made ground before delivering to Dan Cashman for the try converted by Steele. Once again though, Shire shot themselves in the foot and allowed Howe to run the ball again and it was made far too easy for them to stretch their lead with another converted try. Shire’s forwards battled away to keep the pressure on and another penalty was won in front of the posts. Rather than take the easy 3 points on offer, they picked the ball up and ran at Howe but lost possession.

Despite spending 15 minutes near the Howe line they could not find the key to unlock the defence and after yet another unsuccessful attack they gave away possession and were soundly punished as Howe again showed up Shire’s frailties.

The 2nds failed to field a team against Biggar and are therefore deemed to have been beaten by 28 points to nil.

Both teams take on Dunfermline at the North Inch tomorrow and this is a massive day for the club. Kick Offs are now 2pm.