Indeed, a return to the top-flight had taken its toll on a squad which enjoyed a blistering start to the campaign before crawling to a much-needed break. After being forced to field around half a dozen teenagers in their defeat to Watsonians, the coach is looking forward to showing what the team is capable again when they take on Hawick.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started the season really well and I\u2019ve heard some commentary in the media about GHA, \u2018they\u2019re not actually good individuals. It\u2019s all about the team and maybe that bubble\u2019s burst\u2019. Well, I\u2019ll tell you what, we\u2019re going to play the Borders clubs in the next few weeks and we\u2019re well and truly back after that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whereas Forrester could welcome an experienced contingent back, Accies head coach Ryan Grant<\/strong> is currently in the midst of a mini-crisis with weather and injuries hampering preparation. \u201cAfter having a couple of weeks off and not being able to train due to a waterlogged pitch, I know it sounds like excuses but for me today, I think the club really fronted up quite well against a Premiership outfit,\u201d he said<\/p>\n \u201cWhat was disappointing for me is the amount of opportunities we left out on the pitch today. That moment of madness at the end where we had a penalty right in front of the posts [deciding to tap and go], we could have kicked it out for the possibility to win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe conceded a try after about seven seconds and we were like, \u2018oh God, this is not good.\u2019 But the boys came back really well and I think there are moments in that game we can look at and take the positives from going into Gala next week.\u201d<\/p>\n Accies were on the back foot from the off, a knock-on from winger Kwesi O\u2019Hare<\/strong> in the corner gave GHA the platform to put themselves ahead as Ruari Campbell<\/strong> dotted down from a driven maul just over a minute into proceedings. Gregor Drummond<\/strong> could not convert and both sides would rue misplacing their kicking boots.<\/p>\n A misjudged return kick-off looked as though the tone had been set for the now chasers, but they recovered well, spending significant chunks of the opening 40 camped out in the GHA half, only to be undone only by the odd knock-on and forward pass meaning there was\u00a0no reward was forthcoming for their efforts.<\/p>\n That was until Oli Nash<\/strong> found a narrow passage in the hosts\u2019 defence, darting through to level the scores but Accies could not add the extras.<\/p>\n Counter-attacking raids continued to keep Accies on their toes. Caleb Thomson<\/strong> came agonisingly close to putting GHA back in front. Instead, McKirdy took\u00a0 matters into his own hands and pinched five points. No dice on the conversion as Drummond missed a second to see the Glasgow clubs head into the break with the hosts bleading 10-5.<\/p>\n Indiscipline allowed Accies to creep into the opposition half and whilst GHA held out against some crunching attempts to cross the line, resistance was all too brief as centre Jordan Craig<\/strong> cut through to level proceedings. Substitute Adam Ryan<\/strong> bucked the trend from the tee and put the away side 12-10 up.<\/p>\n Just as they did in the Cup final, GHA began to assert themselves as time passed. Different this time, however, was their ability to convert chances. For the third (of four come the whistle) time in the game, GHA were held up over the line, lacking the nous to punish Accies\u2019s struggles to clear their lines. Blushes were spared as McKirdy cleared the hurdles on the line to make it a brace for the scrum-half and Drummond made his first conversion.<\/p>\n As Accies conceded a penalty by the ten-metre line of their own half, GHA\u2019s decision to kick for the three points was an odd one given the struggles from the tee and it proved to be the wrong call as the ball sailed wide but GHA did well to hold out.<\/p>\n McKirdy saw yellow in the dying stages but the holders held firm to progress into the next round of the Cup.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Teams \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n GHA:<\/strong> G Drummond; C Thomson, M Hughes, N Thompson, R Nolan; A Goudie, E McKirdy; L Hodge, R Campbell, C MacGregor, A Kerr, H McKenzie, O Lonergan Black, D Ewing\u00a9, L McCutcheon. Subs used:<\/strong> E McGovern, Z Burgess, S Callaghan, L Moncrieff, B Curtis, A Cobb, F Jackson.<\/p>\n Glasgow Accies:<\/strong> R Morton; O Nash, J Craig, J McCready, K O\u2019Hare; A Storie, M Clunas; M Ashdown, S Rodgers\u00a9, S Longwell, L Campbell, H Briggs, B Skinner, J Evans, M Holland. Subs used:<\/strong> D Cruickshanks, G Davis, S Sing, J Bonnefoy, J Ludick, A Ryan, R Bourrieres.<\/p>\n Referee:<\/strong> Michael Todd<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Scorers \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n GHA:<\/strong> Tries: Campbell, McKirdy 2; Cons: Drummond.<\/p>\n Glasgow Accies:<\/strong> Tries: Nash, Craig; Cons: Ryan.<\/p>\n Scoring sequence (GHA first):<\/strong> 5-0; 5-5; 10-5 (h-t) 10-12; 17-12.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Yellow cards \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n GHA:<\/strong> McKirdy<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Player-of-the-Match:<\/strong> Each player threw themselves into tackle after tackle. The GHA line-out was impressive and the driving maul delivered yet again. But amongst the four tries held up, Euan McKirdy<\/strong>\u2019s double from short range showed a desperately needed cool head and experience. A turnover late on and thumping tackle whilst out on the wing was an added bonus. It was enough to put the yellow card in the closing minutes to the recesses of the mind. A shoutout too for Zak Burgess, the 18-year-old prop who made his debut off the bench. The first game of many no doubt.<\/p>\n Talking point:<\/strong> Talk about the disparity between leagues is one which haunts every sport. Teams go up totally unprepared before shooting back down bloody and bruised. However, today\u2019s match-up was one which featured a promoted side who have made themselves at home in the top-flight despite recent results, against a team from National One who ran them incredibly close. A toe-to-toe battle which gives a reason to be optimistic for the state of the pyramid and, on a side note, hopefully causes some teams a rethink about not participating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indeed, a return to the top-flight had taken its toll on a squad which enjoyed a blistering start…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,85185,167188,918,181914,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-573573","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-divi","10":"tag-gha-rfc","11":"tag-glasgow","12":"tag-glasgow-academicals-rfc","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115557976197521825","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}