The Bankie boys had taken confidence from last week’s display against Lenzie and flew out the traps and raced into a 5-0 lead within 5 minutes. Douglas Vallance pounced on a knock on in the Stewartry midfield and the forwards took over and rumbled up the park. The ball was then whipped through the backs hands and full back David Miller was left with an easy run in and dived over to open the scoring. Ross Moffatt’s conversion was missed.
Miller nearly snatched another a few minutes later after the Stewartry defence had taken a pounding but with the line in sight his dive was blocked and he knocked on. From the resulting scrum the away standoff sliced his clearance kick and from the lineout the pack produced a mighty maul from 10 metres out. Jamie Boyd was in control and touched down to extend Banks lead to 10 after Moffatts conversion from out wide was missed.
The lead was shortened as Stewartry hit back almost instantly from a well worked lineout move and used their Number 8 to bash up the middle and the home defence sat back and allowed their tight head prop to power over the line and the try was converted.
Clydebank then took control and were playing some excellent running rugby with the gameplan of using the forwards to suck in the defence to release the confident backs with centres Starkey and Parr looking dangerous with ball in hand. Stewartry came back into the game in open play with their back 3 running into space and returning kicks well. They were also dominating the scrum and pushing the Bank 8 back with ease. Clydebank stuck to their tactics and continued to dominate territory and possession. Moffatt missed a penalty attempt but extended their lead from another lineout. They mauled it up and were brought down short of the line but after several pick and drives Moffatt sneaked down the blind side and dotted down. He missed the conversion but the home side were now 15-7 up and confidence was growing. The backs tried an outside miss move from a scrum to release Vallance on the stroke of halftime that sent him clear but the referee deemed the pass to him forward and he called it back and blew his whistle to end the half.
Clydebank turned around hopeful of building on their lead but the second half was more fractious and neither side could get a grip of the game with the defences rock solid. As anticipated the away side were anxious to get back in the game and had long periods of possession but couldn't turn it into points and the Red and Blacks were not as fluid as in the first half. A penalty attempt from Stewartry went wide after 10 minutes but they clawed their way back after 25 minutes of the half through their prop who scored a classic forwards try using his size and power to bulldoze his way over the Bankies line and the conversion was slotted to make the score 15-14. This led to a nervy last quarter as both sides went at it full tilt for the win.
The turning point of the match came with 5 minutes to go when Bank gave away a penalty just inside their half but when they protested their innocence the referee marched them back a further 10 metres into kickable range. The penalty split the posts and Stewartry were now in the lead for the first time in the match. This setup a frantic finale and Moffatt had a chance with a penalty to regain the lead but he hooked it wide and the chance was gone. Stewartry regained possession and played out the game to win but the home side were gutted after producing their best performance of the season.