Irvine scored 3 tries in the first twenty minutes, putting the thoughts of an elusive away victory further from the minds of the travelling players. The combination of good hands and fast backs gets you a long way in this league and Irvine showed these early in the game. Clydebank, who were so quick off the mark last week against Dalziel, failed to get into the game at the start. Missed tackles and poor management of the defensive line meant Irvine were 19 points up before Clydebank really got going.

However the Bankies began to show they were not there to simply make up the numbers. The pack began to put in some crunching tackles and got up in the faces of the home team. Although the lineout was inconsistent from the visitors all afternoon, when they got their maul set right it proved to be fierce. An Irvine player pulled down a typical stomping Clydebank maul and found himself in disagreement with middle row Derek Brown. The referee found himself obliged to give both Brown and the Irvine prop a yellow card for their antics. Although Brown would watch the remainder of the first half from the sidelines he made up for it by taking the ball into contact time after time in the second half.

The second half found Clydebank attacking the missing try line at the far end of the Irvine pitch. But Clydebank were found guilty of errors giving Irvine a cheap score. However the pack began to punch holes in the home side's defence. The forwards held onto the ball with Colin MacLean, on his return from a two year hiatus, a welcome sight as a more positive Clydebank were on display. Finally Clydebank formed a successful maul and drove over the Irvine goal line with Derek Brown touching down.

Disappointingly for the visitors, missed tackles and darting running gave the home side another score to dent their hopes of a comeback. Substitute player/coach Ronnie McKee came from the bench to score later in the second half rounding off the scoring in the game (last try wins?). Liam Patton came on for the injured McCombe and gave a successful 30 minute performance in his first taste of competitive adult level rugby.

An altogether more convincing second half gave the visitors hope that the return leg at Whitecrook would be a more closely fought affair in terms of the scoreline. Next week Clydebank make the journey down to Castle Douglas to play Stewartry.


D. Donnelly