Strathmore 1st XV go into the Mid Season break sitting top of Caley Division 1 following a rather unconvincing win over Grangemouth Stags on Saturday at Inchmacoble.

Strathmore started nervously against the big Grangemouth pack who had the wind advantage first half and dominated the first 10 minutes with some excellent open play kicking and attacking forwards play. The Stags were awarded a penalty in front of the posts which put them 3 points in front for their efforts. This seemed to awaken the home team and from a sustained period of forwards play a Scott Strachan try in the far corner settled the nerves for both the home team and supporters alike. 5-3

The Strathie forwards were having to up their game to compete with the heavier Stags pack but they were up to the job and flanker Ian Reid was next to crash over the whitewash with Ali Olivier adding the extras mid way through the first half. This proved to be the last score of the first half despite a few attempts to cross the visitors try line which were deemed to be held up. HT 12-3.

The second half whistle seemed to signal for the wind the drop as Strathie didn’t have the same wind advantage as Grangemouth had first half. Thankfully this didn’t stop the Men in Black going on to extend their lead with great link up play from Dave Vernon who supported Glenn Feighan following his surging run allowing Vernon to score under the posts. Olivier again followed up with the conversion on 50 mins. 19-3

The Stags never looked out of this game and managed to score a converted try on 55 minutes to reduce the scoreline to 19-10.
Strathie Captain Dave Smith had a few choice words to say to the guys under the posts and he then led by example to secure the bonus point win for his team.

The Strathie backs had had a relatively quiet afternoon compared to previous games and it was pleasing for the home support to see the skipper score on 70 minutes killing the game off 24-10 which was the full time score.

Head Coach Stewart Ross commented “We played badly and won which is a mark of a good team. We go into the mid season break top of the league which is great.”

The Angus Development team made up of Strathie 2’s and Montrose players had another highly entertaining game against Arbroath on Saturday. Although losing 22 - 43 the Development team continue to show a lot of promise and still remain in the top half of table. This Saturday they look forward to Alloa 2nd XV travelling North to Angus, venue still to be confirmed but it will be a 2 pm KO.