Morgan 18 – Perthshire 12

Perthshire’s season reached a new low on Saturday when the previously pointless Morgan showed much more determination and commitment to defeat Shire by 18 - 12. Morgan have only scored 100 points this season and 40 of these have been against the Eagles.
The opening was encouraging for Shire as Kiddie sent a penalty wide for Morgan and soon afterwards a moment of magic from Dom O’Connor saw him side step his way over the line for a great try which he also converted. Kiddie then made no mistake with his next penalty to keep Morgan in the hunt. Shire’s scrum was dominating proceedings but any ball from this was squandered by loose or dropped passes. Play flowed from end to end and Morgan were unlucky when the ball fell from Kiddie’s grasp as he made for the line. Shire’s defence was strong though but the penalty count was mounting against them and when the referee had had enough, Sandy Forsyth received his marching orders for a 10 minute rest. Morgan took full advantage and drove for the line but despite a desperate tackle by Elley, they were first to the breakdown again and drove over for a converted try to give themselves a 10 -7 lead. O’Connor again managed to slip his marker and took play right up to the Morgan 22 where the hard working James Forrester finished off the move to restore Shire’s lead. Indiscipline cost Shire the lead again though and Kiddie slotted another penalty for a 1 point lead at half time.
If Shire were a bit undisciplined and lacked any punch in the first half, then the 2nd half was infinitely worse as Morgan sensed they could win their first game of the season. They gave away numerous penalties which luckily were not converted and even a disastrous mix up at the back from Morgan couldn’t yield points for the luckless Shire as the ball had reached the dead ball line before the Eagles could pounce on it. Apart from this moment of light relief, Shire’s attacking force was non existent and they invariably ended up going backwards. The team was crying out for someone to set an example and it is in situations such as this that players like Garry Coull and Shane Imo are most noticeably missed. reuben elley was clearly carrying an injury which hampered the big man’s performance but he once again gave his all. Too many Shire players ended the game looking as fresh as they did when they started. Either they are supremely fit or did not give their all. However, Perthshire did show that they were looking to the future by playing 17 year old Scott Alcorn on the wing but the youngster who was probably the fastest player on the field got no service whatsoever. Shire had a flying back three of Alcorn, McGregor and Rae but to stand any chance they had to get the ball moved out to them quickly so that they had some space to work with but nobody got any chances at all to run the ball despite an abundance of possession. Shire’s only tactic appeared to be to run into as many players as they could find which would be fine if the ball was recycled quickly or support players then took it on further but this didn’t happen and Morgan coped quite comfortably with Shire’s attacks. Any hopes of a Shire victory ended when Morgan scored again and the only glimmer of comfort came when Kiddie missed another penalty near the end which meant that Shire had the dubious honour of claiming a losing bonus point.
Shire risk being left further behind in the pecking order as they will have to sit on their heels for 4 weeks and have no more games until the 1st December whereas their opponents in the East and West will be honing their skills against the likes of Premier 1 opposition in the Cup and Borders League. Andy Cummins will no doubt be impressing on his players that there is now a very real possibility of Shire being relegated to the regional leagues unless the players show some more fight and commitment. Any less than 3 wins from the remaining 7 matches will make relegation a distinct possibility.