Rugbh: Shire outgunned by Cartha

Oct 14 2011 Perthshire Advertiser Friday

Cartha Q/Park56

Perthshire7

WITH a try score of 10-1 against, there is not much more that can be said about this game really.

The coaches, Andy Cummins and Derek O’Riordan, have enough on their plate trying to prepare and coach the players midweek without spending every Friday night and Saturday morning phoning around trying to get two teams out on the park.

This was just about achieved on Saturday but the seconds were still men short as the bus left.

Although some more phone calls and the generosity of Hamilton saw us able to field two teams, albeit without a full complement of replacements for either team.

The weather did not lighten spirits either as it was a dreich day in the west of Scotland as Shire kicked off. Cartha set out their stall early on and it was clear their forwards were bigger, fitter and more determined than the Shire eight.

They were awarded a penalty in the opening minutes and opted for a scrum and pushed Shire backwards and a simple pick up and drive gave them the first score. However, within two minutes Shire stunned the home crowd with what was undoubtedly the try of the match.

Dom O’Connor ghosted past his opposite number, slipped the ball to Ross Angus on his shoulder where every good number 7 should be.

Ross fed Derek O’Riordan who gave the supporting Gregor Brockbank the scoring pass and Gregor dived over for a wonder try. Shire’s backs were more than a match for Cartha and would no doubt have loved to be able to play with a set of forwards as dominating as Cartha’s.

They were playing a kicking game in the wet conditions but full back Craig Assenti was mopping up everything that Cartha threw at him.

Derek O’Riordan received a yellow card for his enthusiastic play and when Cartha won another penalty within striking distance of the line they opted for the scrum again and once more demolished the Shire scrum, picked up at Number 8 and scored.

Perthshire should have been keeping the ball away from contact because they were losing the forward battle and it would have been much more beneficial to spread the ball to their fast wide men.

However, they were tackling well and even with all their possession, Cartha were having difficulty scoring.

Cartha’s third try was scored after half an hour when the stand off was given the freedom of the park to slice through and score.

Shire were unlucky to be so far adrift at half time and there was still a glimmer of hope that they would pull this one out of the fire in the second half.

However, this was not to be and the powerful Cartha forwards upped their efforts again and for the rest of the game it was all one way traffic as the Glasgow outfit ran in six tries with no reply.

Almost all the tries came through pushover scrums or driving mauls and there was nothing the Eagles could do about it.

The coaches have taken the brave step of giving preference to those who make the effort to attend training this week so it could be much-changed, albeit fitter team who make the hazardous trip to Ardrossan on Saturday. The bus will leave the clubhouse at 11.30am

The seconds suffered a 73-0 defeat to the high flying Hamilton on Saturday but they travel to Musselburgh with a squad in good heart.