Shire travelled to Stonehaven this week coming off a convincing win last week against Hillfoots. The boys were in a confident mood up against bottom of the league side Mackie. The sun came out at Redcloak for kick-off giving both sides a chance to play some good running rugby.

Mackie received the kick-off and were quick to test out shires defence moving the ball through the backlines hands into the wide channels and forcing some good covering tackles from winger Gary McRae and centre Ben MacDougall. Mackie were held at their 22 metre line and were forced to kick, with Flanker Craig Livingston being quick to put pressure on the Mackie 10 and charge down the kick to get on the ball 10 metres from the Mackie try line and go over for Aberdeenshire’s first try (5-0).
Aberdeenshire now with their tails up just needed to stick to the game plan and go through the phases. Mackie kept a lot of pressure on Shires attack and forced a lot of mistakes on the travelling sides attack, which led to Mackie getting a penalty right in front of the posts. This was slotted by the home side’s kicker. (5-3).

Shire frustrated from the mistakes leading to the penalty, went back to work putting a lot of pressure on the restart through big tackles from chasing winger Joe Oyesiku and Kenny Penman. The men from Woodside kept Mackie pinned in their own half and a missed kick into touch gave the Shire pack the chance to test out the lineout from a good attacking position. The Shire pack sucked the Mackie forwards in at the lineout, captain Kris Gilmartin spotted an open blindside from the back of the maul and broke off to run in and hold off the Mackie full back to go over for Shires second try. (10-3).

From the restart the structure was still not there for Shire. Basketball was the best way to describe the way the boys were playing. Even though the play was scrappy and a lot of offloads were being forced all across the park from the seconds rows Rory Chalmers and Stuart Crawford this still worked out to Shires advantage as there was still gaps in the Mackie defence which led to a few good line breaks from Iain Redmond and James Patterson. This led to a penalty in a good position for Iain Redmond to get another 3 on the board. (13-3).

The scrappy play carried on longer in the first half which led to mistakes which the home side capitalised on. Shire were pinned right on their line and with some strong counter rucking from the Mackie forwards they turned over the ball and got over the line for their first try by Mackie’s No.2.
After they scored this try, this spurred the Shire guys into scoring 2 tries in quick succession, one coming from a great break down the wing from Joe Oyesiku to get a 2 on 1 with the fullback and popped the ball inside to James Patterson to run in under the sticks. The second came from a slightly different approach using the weight of the pack close to Mackies try line. BARNY HENDERSON was the man to pick the ball up from the back of the ruck to barge over the line and hold off the defenders to ground the ball.

Shire had one last attack before halftime. Mackie had a lack of numbers down on the blindside which was spotted quickly by shires scrum half Scott Simpson, who drew the winger in and popped the ball to Stuart Crawford at pace allowing him to run in for the final score of the half.

Half time score: 32-8.
With wise words at halftime from coach Eric Strachan, Shire knew they had to stick to the game plan and play some rugby in the backs.

Shire immediately started playing to the game plan. Quick rucking from the shire pack gave great quick ball for scrum half Alan Stewart who released the backs. Matt Ball moved to the wing, and was given the ball in plenty of space to out pace his man and score shires first try of the second half.
The tries kept coming with fly half Iain Redmond spotting gaps in the defence, using his pace he ran through and stepped the full back to go under the posts for the try.

With the gaps in the home side’s midfield being found by the travelling side, the backs made full advantage of the quick ball. Iain Redmond put several runners through the weak defence with James Patterson, Gav Cunningham, Ben Macdougal and Gary Mcrae all just getting stopped by Mackies scramble defence.

With shire keeping the pressure in Mackies 22, it was time for the forwards to have a go with some pick and go’s. Sipho Moyo, Ross Bennie-Coulson and Andy Sutherland all had a dig at Mackies fringe defence and gained some hard yards, but it was BARNY HENDERSON who was there for the one that counted. With almost an identical pick and go that he did in the first half, he got over for his second try of the match.

The pressure continued with with Ross Bennie-Coulson, Kenny Pennman and Sipho Moyo running hard lines in the midfield which gave the backs quick ball. Centre Ben Macdougall showed his strength by brushing off 3 or 4 tackles staying on his feet and then having the pace to beat the full back and dive over the line.

Mackie did not give up though to their credit and worked hard to get into the shire 22 on several occasions, scoring on two occasions. For one of the scores the ball was passed out to the Mackie no.13 who sold a dummy (not naming who he sold it to) and he got in for their 3rd try. This showing, that no matter what the score, Shire need to keep concentration levels high to try and prevent letting in so-called, soft tries.

With 15 minutes left shire were still hungry for more tries. With a scrum won 10 metres from the Mackie try line the forwards put the squeeze on and the ball was picked up by sub no.8 Andy Cook who dived over for his 8th try of the season (much to the delight of Rbc).

With the game dying out there was one last chance for an attack. I.Redmond being greedy went on one of his dancey, mazy runs. stepping 5 or 6 Mackie defenders and went in for his second right on full time.

Full time score. 71-20.

Another good performance from Aberdeenshire, who welcome St Andrews University to Woodside this weekend, for a top of the table tussle.