Tough introduction to premier three

Sep 4 2009 by Our Correspondent, Dumfries Standard Friday

EVEN ON their home turf at Park Farm, it was always going to be difficult for newly promoted Dumfries Saints on the first day of a new season, in a new league, against largely unknown opposition.

What they did know was that Hillhead Jordanhill – commonly known as Hills – had been one of the most competitive teams in Premiership Three last season, narrowly missing out on promotion.

A string of unfortunate injuries from the Saints’ pre-season warm up matches resulted in “needs must” dictating the starting positions of the pack.

Saints might have got away with that against lesser opposition, but the opening minutes proved that Hills were a quality outfit.

Saints conceded a penalty at the first scrum of the game, and were still trying to take in what had happened when they were penalised again for not retiring the required 10 metres, allowing Hills’ kicker to take his team into a 3-0 lead.

The big, strong and speedy Hills forwards started dominating the loose and forcing the Saints to commit large numbers to defending the break down and fringes so it was inevitable that they quickly spun it wide to exploit the gaps they had created in the Saints defence. Again, the Hills’ kicker was accurate, and it was 10-0.

The fiercely contested breakdowns led to the continuation of a tussle after the ball was away, and while the Saints’ supporters might have thought that honours were roughly even, the ref saw it otherwise and sent a Saints player for a 10-minute cooling-off in the sin bin. Saints were down to 14 men.

Hills sought to press home their advantage and the Saints back row looked like they had on an important turnover at a ruck, but it was done illegally.

This time Hills chose to kick for touch in Saints 22, won the line-out and gave an excellent demonstration of the effectiveness of the rolling maul to carry them over the Saints line, taking the score to 15-0.

From then on, the Saints were in unfamiliar territory playing catch-up rugby. Experience in the premiership will bring cool heads waiting for the opportunities.

They contested every ball and tried to create chances out of every scrap of possession, leading to some impressive runs out of defence, but, often ending in unforced errors that handed possession back to Hills.

Any attempt to establish some sort of rhythm in the Saints game was thwarted by all too frequent stoppages. The application of the Experimental Law Variations seemed to be causing confusion among the players and the referee felt obliged to keep stopping the game to take one or two Saints offenders aside for a quiet and sometimes long word – while the rest of the players and spectators watched and waited.

Hills were dominating possession and territory, but finally gave away a penalty within kicking range for Saints to bring the score back to 15-3 on the half-hour mark. However, any hopes of a recovery were quickly dashed when Hills found space out wide to race in for another converted try. Saints only reply was another long range penalty, to give a half-time score of 22-6.

Whatever the Saints coaches said to the players at half-time brought improvements to the defence, the penalty count fell, and there were a few more individual runs out of defence that relieved the pressure but did not bring any scoring chances. Hills add just one unconverted try in the second half to take the final score to 27-6.

The Saints, they must put this game behind them, regroup and concentrate on next week’s game – away to Garnock with a 3pm kick-off. Supporters planning to travel to Garnock (situated between Irvine and Kilmarnock) can find directions on the Saints website. Click on fixtures, and then on Garnock, Report, Read.

Team: R Macmillan, R Henderson, S Cockburn, A Lean, J Little (Capt), K Brown, M Scott, S Clanachan, A Watson, T Hiddleston, R Steele, M Richardson, F Shaw, J Sloan, S Hiddleston. Reps (all used) K Geddes, C Thomson, J Farquhar, K Henderson.