TOUGH TACKLING SECURES VITAL WIN

Published 11 Mar 2010 09:00 0 Comments

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HELENSBURGH'S league revival continued on Saturday following their impressive victory over Hawick Linden.

Having produced an unexpected victory on the road the previous week, the big challenge for the Burgh was to turn the tables on the canny Borders opposition who had given them a lesson earlier in the season.

The Greens were fearing a repeat of that 22-8 loss after only five minutes as Alistair Cairns slipped a pass out of the tackle in the home 22 and the opposition stand-off, with intuitive skill, intercepted the ball and ran in below the posts.

Ali Rogers fielded the high ball from the restart and placed it deftly into a gap behind the defence where the Hawick full-back misread the bounce. An alert David Riding was up rapidly to deliver the ball to Shaun MacNee on the burst who provided Jason Feltham with the opportunity to dive over the try-line.

Helensburgh began to dominate territorially and were demonstrating greater urgency in all aspects of their play.

Stevie Walker at scrum-half was bossing the pack who were giving the Border opposition a lesson in ball retention.

After 12 minutes this pressure produced a penalty that was slotted over by Riding to put Helensburgh ahead.

With a man light the Helensburgh pack continued to battle at the break down and in midfield turned over ball. This opportunity was taken on by Riding who on the half break slipped the ball to Cairns who out sprinted the defence to touch down. The Riding conversion went over to stretch the score to 15-7 with 25 minutes played.

The game continued in ideal conditions and when Hawick won the ball on the half-way linethe visiting full-back made a telling burst into the line.

Helensburgh, with one man down, were short handed in defence and this allowed Hawick to run in for their second try of the game on the half-hour.

Both packs were demonstrating an appetite at the breakdown without either gaining superiority until a well controlled pick and drive by the Greens took play to the edge of the visitors 22-metre area.

Quick second phase ball was released to Shaun Firtzgerald who beat the first line of defence and put Phil Rogers in at the corner in the dying minutes of the half.

With an eight-point advantage at the interval, the Greens looked to capitalise on their lead after the restart.

But the opposition appeared to have been subjected to a robust team talk at the break and were immediately providing more purposeful opposition.

The Hawick pack kept the ball tight to drive into the Burgh danger zone and win a penalty.

This was slotted over with five minutes of the second half played.

Hawick continued to dominate play with their stand-off gaining ground with a series of well placed line kicks and their pack retaining ball well in the loose.

Another well-taken penalty from the visitors narrowed the Greens' lead to 20-18.

And when the Hawick goal kicker then missed a couple of probable penalties Riding responded with a further three points for the Burgh.

The important bonus try came when Johnnie Drake fielded a high ball in the Burgh 22 metre area and set off on a mazy run. After making it all the way into the opposition's red zone Drake was grounded before quick ball eventually saw man of the match Cairns bundle the ball over the line.

Hawick were not finished yet and with minutes to run down on the clock delivered a well-taken drop goal to conclude the day's scoring.

An enthralling game of open running rugby, which lifted Helensburgh to sixth spot in the league, that kept the large crowd on their toes for all 80 minutes.

Helensburgh: A Drake, McNee, Wragg, McInroy, Brown, Feltham, J Gibson, Somerville, Walker, Riding, J Drake, Fitzgerald, P Rogers, A Rogers. Subs: Musset, Campbell, N Sloan.

Saturday March 13 sees a rescheduled game against Ross High at Ardencaple with a 3pm kick-off.

This article appeared in Helensburgh Advertiser 11 Mar 10

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