Producing some scintillating rugby in the first half,scoring three
cracking tries in the process Falkirk looked to be in the
ascendancy,but even yet again as it seems to be a repeating pattern of
most of their league fixtures to date,they took their foot off the
pedal after the break,lost their cohesion and concentration and were
left hanging on for dear life at the close of play. Nonetheless a
positive attitude saw Falkirk take an early lead when Full-Back Alex
Penman converted a penalty in the 3rd minute,and their continuing
perseverance led to them scoring their first try of the afternoon.
After going through several phases of play just outside Accies 22
metre line Outside-Centre David Lyle took possession of the ball,and
in an angular run from near the right hand touch-line,he broke clean
through to storm in unopposed under the posts for a well taken
touchdown,which Alex Penman converted,in the 17th minute. Keeping
up the pressure,and giving their opponents little time to
respond,Falkirk were rewarded on the half hour mark with an almost
carbon-copy of their previous try when Winger Niall Lear fielded the
ball in almost the same position on the field as before and cut
through Accies defence in a similar run for another try under the
uprights,with Penman again adding the conversion. However Accies
responded well and began to put Falkirk under a fair bit of pressure
in their last quarter of the field,and following a lengthy period of
all hands to the pumps for the home side the visitors finally breached
the line when Right-Winger Callum McKechnie dived over in the corner
for an unconverted try in the 40th minute. Not to be outdone
though,and showing a lot of character,Falkirk surged forward to Accies
line from the restart probing both sides of the pitch,before Graham
Gillilands finished off a fine passage of play by squeezing his way in
at the corner flag for an unconverted try three minutes into first
half injury time. Half-Time Falkirk 22 Accies 5. Continuing
from where they left off Falkirk took the game to Accies and were
looking threatening on the visitors' 22 metre line,but alas a slack
pass was pounced on and hacked the remainder of the pitch for an
oppertunist try from Ardrossan's Stand-Off Allan Wilson with the half
only 3 minutes old. Bouyed up by that Accies then went on to rock
Falkirk very shortly afterwards when they took advantage of a spilled
fielding catch,and before the home side knew where they were Accies
forced them back to their try-line,and from the ensuing ruck
Prop-Forward Ben Hamilton used his bulk to crash has way over for a
try which Wilson duly converted to put his side very much back in
contention. Countering well Alex Penman then sent a long range
penalty sailing between Accies posts in the 53rd minute,but the
visitors cut Falkirk's lead to a solitary point just 3 minutes later
when Inside-Centre Peter Gossman latched onto a neat grubber-kick
from Allan Wilson inside the home side's 22 metre area and dived on
the loose ball for an easy conversion for Wilson. Nevertheless as
the saying goes when the going gets tough the tough get going and
Falkirk responded admirably in the 60th minute,after a sustained spell
on Accies 5 metre line Prop-Forward Ihipa Thompson barged over for the
bonus point awarding try in the corner. However the closing quarter
of the match proved a tense affair for both sides,which was shown in
an almost heart-stopping moment near the end when Accies Number 8
plucked the ball from the base of a scrum on the half way line and
took off at a rate of knots for the try-line,but happily for Falkirk
he was dragged down just short and the danger was cleared. The home
side finished strongly and really should have scored another try but
were awarded a penalty,only for Penman uncharacteristically to
narrowly miss. Falkirk Team 1.Kris Burney 2.Andrew Simpson 3.Graeme
Simpson 4.Will Hansen 5.Laurence Miller 6.Matt Larson 7.Stuart
McCulloch 8.Cole Ronald 9.Dan Ritchie 10.Logan Bonnar 11.Niall Lear
12.Andrew Hamilton 13.David Lyle 14.Aubrey MnCube 15.Alex Penman.
Subs.16.Ihipa Thompson 17.Tom Hobbs 18.Graham Gillilands 19.Stuart
McGhee. This Week Falkirk head for the Granite City for a Cup-Tie
against Aberdeen Grammar at Rubislaw. Kick-Off is at 2.00p.m. and
the team bus leaves the clubhouse at 9.30a.m.

Quick Reply
To: sport