HELENSBURGH Rugby Club suffered a heavy 47-10 loss against Oban Lorne at the weekend as they returned to action following the autumn internationals.

Burgh arrived in Oban with the hope of gaining some much-needed points to help them climb up the Tennent’s West Regional Division 2 league table, where they currently sit ninth.

But the hosts started well, opening the scoring after just five minutes after a knock-on followed by offside by the Grizzlies gave Oban the penalty which they passed out wide to score in the corner. With the conversion missed it was 5-0 to the home side and Burgh knew they had a tough game on their hands.

Helensburgh came back strong and after good play by the forwards pushing up to the 22-metre line, scrum-half Ruri Kinsella passed out wide to winger Paul Howell who punched through the Oban defence to gain a penalty in front of the posts. Reece Court slotted through the upright to take the score to 5-3 after 13 minutes.

From the kick-off, Burgh again pushed up to Oban’s 10-metre line with breaking runs from centres Sean Alton and Rogers, but silly penalties enabled Oban to kick the ball back to the Grizzlies’ 22 where another penalty saw Oban dummy and offload to score under the posts before converting to make it 12-3.

The Grizzlies then lost concentration after superb defending at the start and Oban ran in another two converted tries in the final plays of the first-half to leave Burgh trailing by 26-3 at the break.

Burgh kicked off the second half pushing forward with breaking runs by Cammy Kerr but their hard work was again undone by letting Oban steal the ball and score under the posts after 48 minutes.

Helensburgh created many opportunities to score and this time prop Raeside drove the ball up to Oban’s 22 where it was passed out the line to winger Howell who broke through to Oban’s five metre line.

From the ruck, a swift pass from Kinsella to stand off Mike Linzee-Gordon saw him throw the perfect dummy and score under the posts for a well deserved try before Court converted to reduce the deficit.

Burgh were now playing like they had for the first 30 minutes and were working Oban’s defence hard with runs from prop Jamieson and winger Court keeping Oban pinned in their half.

However, the Grizzlies let the dangerous Oban back-line slip through once again with a missed tackle at fault as the home side extended their lead with a converted try in the last five minutes to make it 40-10.

To add insult to injury, Oban slipped through the defence to score straight from the Helensburgh kick-off in the dying seconds.

The scoreline again did not reflect the hard shift put in by the Grizzlies, but breakaway tries were once more their undoing. If they can keep their defence as they did for 60 minutes of the game, the Burgh boys will be a much harder team to beat.

Helensburgh are in action once again this Saturday as they welcome bottom of the table Millbrae RFC.

Millbrae will arrive full of confidence having picked up just their second win of the season at the weekend as they edged past Cumbernauld.

Burgh, meanwhile, will be looking to get back to winning ways with their last victory coming all the way back in October. Kick-off is at 2pm.