Helensburgh Rugby Club win through

Jan 16 2009 by Laura McLachlan, Lennox Herald (main ed)

FORMER Helensburgh number eight Chris Butler made his return to Ardencaple last week – but found himself on the wrong end of a Burgh victory.

Stewart Holmes kicked off into the teeth of the breeze and a composed Police squad fielded the ball and worked their way up into the Burgh 22.

Their big pack controlled possession until they won a penalty for a Burgh infringement at the breakdown.

This was converted to open the score at five minutes.

A penalty to the visitors 10 metres from the Burgh line saw their weighty ball carrier tackled by MacIntyre but an unfortunate clash of heads saw his opposite number taken off on a stretcher, while MacIntyre left the field with a blood injury to be replaced by Melbourne.

Play restarted after a 10- minute delay and the opposition appeared to have lost their concentration while the home squad were now in forward mode.

This change in fortunes took play up into the opposition half for the first time and a neat chip from French saw the Police full back bundled into touch well inside their 22.

This positive field position allowed the Burgh backs, with excellent handling in the difficult conditions, to stretch the opposition defence and at the second attempt, Stewart Holmes broke through for the opening try.

The conversion attempt by French fell short against the wind to leave the score at 5-3.

Burgh played out the last five minutes of the half with great purpose and a forward rush led by Owen MacInroy and Duncan Watt provided second phase ball to Josh Rettie on the blind side touch-line. His darting run was denied when the ball spilled forward as he was tackled on the goal line.

With 20 minutes of the second half played and the game still finely balanced, coach MacIntyre returned to the field of play with hard working hooker MacNee being rested.

This increased weight in the pack provided further impetus to the forwards efforts and resulted in MacIntyre being driven over the try line. The referee however penalised Helensburgh for a second movement to again relieve the opposition’s position.

Helensburgh were soon back up into the opposition 22 and a quick ball from Danny Campbell at the base of the ruck saw a slick inside pass from Holmes to Watt on the burst to run in from 20 metres and touch down under the posts.

Holmes’ wind-assisted conversion went between the posts to stretch the score to 12-3.

Helensburgh continued to be masters of the conditions but with the puddles starting to form on the pitch the game was halted with 10 minutes to play and the tie deservedly awarded to the home side.

Burgh: A Rogers, J Rettie, P Rogers, A Cairns, E French, S Holmes, D Campbell, O MacInroy, S MacNee, L MacIntyre, D Calderwood, A Inglis, D Watt, R Gibson, S MacCrimmon.

Subs: P Melbourne, T Smith, J Musset.

The Burgh continue their league campaign this Saturday, January 17, when they travel east to meet the Grangemouth Stags with a 2pm kick off.