Craig remain winless after the sixth game of the season but for the second game in a row they are left wondering how they let the win slip through their fingers.

We travelled with 17and managed to field a reasonable team with a mixture of youth and experience - David Hill making his debut on the wing and Iain McGlone making a welcome return to the pack and Kenny White – still feeling guilty for abandoning the side V Peterhead- returning to the side at 9.

The game started at quite a frenetic pace with both teams testing the defensive capabilities of their opponents. Garioch were the first to touch down as our poor starting reared its ugly head again. A dropped pass by the Craig loose forwards was snatched up by one of the Garioch backs who ran in under the sticks. 7-0.

Once again though, Craig didn’t let their heads drop and started to play well. We pinned Garioch back into their own half for the next 15 minutes and were rewarded with a try under the posts. Sam Hourston and Richard “Jessie” Jessiman led by example and carried to within a few yards. The Craig players had numerous darts for the line, only to be held up under the posts. Stevie Konkel managed to prove age is only a number and picked off the base of the ruck to score his second try of the season. Nick Morgan converted to make the score 7-7.
As Craig settled into their rhythm they began to play on the front foot but their momentum was stifled by some strange refereeing decisions. To be fair, these decisions were affecting both sides and Garioch were pinged for hands in the ruck when they seemed to have won the ball cleanly. The metronomic boot of Captain Morgan didn’t need a second invitation and slotted the 3 points to leave the half time score Garioch 7 – 10 ICD.

The message was clear at half time: keep playing our game and the win will come. Kenny White was switched to inside centre in a bid to take advantage of the quick ball coming from the Craig set piece and Sean Ferguson went in at scrum half. The second half started much like the first and Garioch’s forwards rumbled over for a try. For the next wee while there was a passage of play where again both backs and forwards where testing each other out and checking out the tackling and running ability of the opposition. Craig Dunain then got a scrum about 10 metres inside the Garioch half. Sean Ferguson picked the ball up and decided to have a dart down the blind side. Luckily for him Richard Jessieman and David Hill went with him and after a cheeky wee kick in to their goal area David Hill managed to dive on the ball to score a debut try (perfectly grounded) which was converted by Nick Morgan, leaving the score 15-17 to Craig.

Garioch picked up their game and began to put more pressure on the Craig set piece. They managed to pin the Inverness side back after winning penalty after penalty. Captain Morgan was asked to have a word with the referee after he repeatedly blew against Craig players at the breakdown for things that both sides had been allowed to do throughout the game. This lead to the game’s turning point. After picking and going from another penalty, Garioch’s forwards drove over the Craig line to score a deserved try. In the aftermath, Stevie Konkel found himself on the ground wrestling with one of the Garioch forwards. Jessie came to his aid and threw a couple of punches. The ref, only seeing the latter incident, rightly sent him for an early bath. This left Craig a valuable loose forward and a man down against an opposition that had gone into a 5 point lead.

Craig came again making a couple of breaks but the Garioch defence held firm. The referee continued to make some strange calls. Seemingly allowing Garioch’s advantages to run for quite a few phases while calling “advantage over” every time a Craig player approached the gain line. With a minute remaining the Garioch scrum half won turn over ball on his own 10 metre line and made a break. He tried to throw a speculative pass to his fellow runner which the ref called as being forward and awarded Craig one last chance from an attacking scrum. However, as Ian Dickson had shouted “forward pass” when the pass was thrown, the ref decided to sin bin him and award Garioch a penalty! They went for the corner and after a few phases managed to push over out wide against the tired 13 men of the away side. This deprived Craig of a losing bonus point and there was only time for Garioch to catch the restart and walk into touch leaving a final score of 27-17.

While the referee did make some odd decisions it would be unfair to take away the credit from Garioch, who took their chances better than we did in a competitive and keenly fought encounter. The simple fact is that we need to start turning these “close calls” into wins.