Persistent Perthshire emerge pointless

Mar 18 2011 Perthshire Advertiser Friday

Perthshire 19

Cartha 29

WITH a couple of inches of snow an early morning pitch inspection was the order, the 2nd XV match was off as the away team would not travel in the weather.

But Cartha, the first team visitors, are made of sterner stuff and they arrived to green pitches.

Cartha started fiercely and had the home defence on the back foot and good forward work gave them the early try converted well.

And some good exchanges slightly against the run of play saw Cartha barge over in the corner for their second, with the extras missed in the wet conditions.

Shire were by no means lying down and although they were not getting the run of the ball they certainly matched Cartha.

The line-out was not working well and this was proved when Cartha’s third of the day arrived – between the posts as several defenders watched as the Cartha forwards strolled past little effort to stop him.

Behind the posts captain Anderson had enough and issued some stern advice which was not for gentle ears.

This bolstered the team and several good forays upfield forced Cartha to concede several penalties before Ryan Hood was over in the corner to reduce the deficit.

Again Shire pressured the Cartha defence, Cartha infringed but good refereeing saw the Cartha number eight sent off and then double try scorer number four to see Shire face only thirteen players for the rest of the half.

Despite the pressure Cartha held out to half time, Perthshire 5 Cartha 19.

The second half started as the first finished and it was only when Cartha were back to full strength did Shire’s Andrew Flavel nip in under the posts for a simple score with Steel slotting the extras.

At this stage of the game Cartha looked lost but, as has often been the case this season, Shire’s errors allowed a simple score from the Cartha number nine.

Credit to Perthshire as again they had the best of the match but lacked the killer punch and when most thought all was lost an Assenti break saw the team rewarded for persistence and with Steel again adding the extra two points the score was Perthshire 19 Cartha 24 with only injury time to play.

Shire retrieved the ball from the restart and while simply kicking it out would have given the team a well deserved bonus point and take them off the bottom of the division, they had higher aspirations and decided to play on and after several phases a fortuitous charge down saw the Cartha winger cross in the corner to take the match and rob Shire of the bonus and close the game Perthshire 19 Cartha 29.

An entertaining match despite the disappointment of not taking at least a bonus point saw some excellent play with only one or two poor decisions and lapses being the difference between the two teams.

Tomorrow’s match is another home game against Ardrossan with a noon kick off and with only five games to play Shire must take something from each of these remaining games to ensure Premiership Rugby next season.