Eagles soar in cup after GHA win

Feb 18 2011 Perthshire Advertiser Friday

Perthshire 27

GHA14

PERTHSHIRE entertained Premier II club Glasgow Hutchesons’ Aloysians – better known as GHA – in round three of the Premier Cup on Saturday and the Eagles turned in their best display of the season to claim victory.

GHA slotted a penalty on the quarter hour mark but the early exchanges were dominated by Shire whose forwards punched well above their weight.

Graeme Clow, at stand off, was varying play cleverly and following a neat little chip over the head of the advancing GHA backs Erlend Oag raced on to it and was unlucky not to score when his kick travelled just a little bit too far.

Kier Doe made good ground when he took play deep into the GHA half and when the forwards won quick ball it was spun out left to Oag who outpaced his marker and opened Shire’s scoring.

Steele added the two points with his conversion and converted a penalty a few minutes later.

Ross Angus then collected the ball from the kick off and powered his way through several despairing tackles before passing to the supporting Erlend Oag who sped over for his second try.

Steele’s left boot completed the seven points.

GHA stepped up several gears and finished the half strongly with a try and a penalty to bring them right into the match, although trailing 11–17.

After some early scares in the scrum, Shire managed to get things sorted out with the evergreen Flavell and young Ryan Hood causing their opponents some grief.

Adam Pattinson was immense in the lineout and stole some good ball from GHA’s throw ins.

The referee seemed to be constantly penalising Shire and this allowed GHA to keep play well in the Shire half.

They elected to go for the line out in the majority of instances and Pattinson undoubtedly saved Shire on many occasions by robbing them of the ball.

The Eagles’ defence was comfortably soaking up all the pressure and all that GHA could muster was a penalty on the hour mark to bring them within three points of Shire.

But Ross Angus was having one of his best games ever for Shire and was proving a real thorn in the flesh of the visitors.

Steele stretched Shire’s lead with a rare penalty and then Ross Angus sealed the win when he carried the ball straight through the GHA pack and had the strength to fight off all challenges and emerge with ball in hand.

He raced all of 30 metres before being hauled down but managed to squeeze the ball away to Simon Moffat supporting on his shoulder and the captain ran between the posts to seal a fantastic victory for brave Shire.

It will be back to the reality of the league on Saturday when Shire meet old rivals Howe of Fife at the North Inch.

This will be a crucial match for the Perth boys and every point is now vital to ensure survival in Premier 3 next season.

Derek Busby is targeting a very challenging 32 points from the remaining nine games but with six of these at home and the team in tremendous form this is achievable.

One of the big factors in determining whether this can be done is getting the support of the Perth public and every club member is urged to come along and help the cause.

Bannerman Decorators and Campbell Dallas are sponsors of tomorrow’s game. Kick off is at 3pm.

The 2nd XV is also at home and face a very tough match against Biggar in the National Reserve League.