Published: Thursday, 13th March, 2008 10:00
Aquaplaning at Ardencaple
By David Christie
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Helensburgh Select 10 - Loch Lomond Select 10
PREPARED: Burgh 1at XV sport their new waterproof training jackets kindly donated to the club by long standing club member Jim Barrowman (centre).
WITH Saturday consumed by what turned out to be Scotland’s epic victory over England, neither side were meant to have a fixture.
But with Murrayfield tickets in short supply, both teams were left with players kicking their heels in their respective club houses.
Cue some quick midweek calls and a hastily arranged friendly.
It had seemed a good idea at the time but come Saturday, the pitch resembled a swamp more closely than a rugby field and both sides could have been forgiven if they had decided to settle for a seat at the bar.
Instead, the teams waded onto the park and, after mastering the art of aquaplaning out of tackles, what ensued was a highly entertaining — at least for the players — game of rugby.
It was Lomond’s patched together band of veterans and youngsters who got to grips with the mud first and stole into the lead.
Flynn sheared through the defence following some good work by both forwards and backs.
To their credit, both teams seemed determined to ignore the weather and throw the ball around with abandon but it was Lomond who were dominating the early passages of play.
They soon scored again through their promising young winger Thompson.
The ball was shipped to him in space but he still had work to do, breaking a tackle before out-pacing the cover to score.
Lomond continued to ping the ball around and created several further chances but a combination of bad luck and bad weather conspired to deny them. Meanwhile, Burgh were far from idle and pressed forward at every opportunity, finally breaking through close to half-time from a series of driving mauls.
The second half saw more chances come and go for both sides, with surprisingly enterprising moves coming to grief as a result of the mud and slippery ball so often that it was almost comic.
Finally, Helensburgh managed a deserved equaliser when their fly-half beat a tired defence to touch down in the corner.
The match ended in the kind of draw both sides can take positives from, not least the fact that it was great fun and played in a good spirit — a nice curtain raiser ahead of the fireworks at Murrayfield.
Lomond now look ahead to a rearranged cup fixture against Wigtonshire on Saturday 10th March at the Dilly.
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