Howe of Fife 26-29 Glasgow Acedemicals

Glasgow Academicals.........29

This rearranged game against Glasgow Accies was an opportunity for Howe to take a step away from the bottom tier of National 2.

The early signs were encouraging with Howe creating a series of ggo support phases of play only for a loose, unnecessary pass, to be intercepted by Accies no 6 Rankin to score under the posts, with the conversion to follow by McGuire.

Howe continued to play with an expansive approach and a lovely little kick over the Accies defence allowed Howe’s Murray the chance to gather and slide over the try line.

Suttie was unable to convert.

From a Howe scrum on their own 22, the ball was passed to Murray who slipped and the resulting decision from the referee was a scrum to Accies.

With the Howe scrum retreating, Accies No 8 Ryan Sweeny had the easy task of scoring with another conversion from McGuire.

From another set piece scrum that Accies marched the Howe pack back and once again for No 8 Sweeny to score his second, with the conversion unsuccessful.

As the half time approached, Howe created a superb sequence of play for fullback Willison to cross, with the extra points added by Suttie.

From a scrum on their own line, the Accies fullback Cowan was given far too much room, and he galloped away, his support taking the ball back into the Howe 22.

From this position their winger Mathie scored to extend the visitors lead by 12.

From a sequence very similar to his first score, Willison showed a lovely footwork and pace to cross the line for his second. A beautifully struck conversion from Suttie added the extra points.

With Howe’s scrum still under pressure, the referee persisted in penalising the pack, Accies always taking another scrum from which they knew they had the advantage.

Referee Hollins stopped play and Cabemaiwasa was shown a yellow.

Despite being reduced to 14 men, the Howe were giving it everything. Their defence remained solid and in attack they looked threatening.

On the completion of his minutes in the sin bin, Cabemaiwasa returned, but not a prop, onto his more familiar berth in the back row.

There was a certain amount of consternation from Accies who believed he would go back into the prop position and scrums would once more become live. The referee appeared content and the scrums remained uncontested.

With less than five remaining a typically bullocking run from Howe hooker Crawford led to a score which tied the game at 24 all. Another superbly timed kick from Suttie gave the Howe a slender two-point advantage.

With seconds to go, Accies collected a kick in their 22 and somehow offloaded the ball which Accies centre McGuire found space to out run the Howe’s defence and score wide out. Despite the unsuccessful conversion they now led by three points.

There was just time left for Howe to mount one more attack which ended when the referee Hollins judged Howe to have knocked them ball forward, when it looked as if it had come off an Accies player. An agonising end to a high intensity match.