Alloa 7-74 Glenrothes: Gray-inspired Glens cruise to victory

Glenrothes travelled to Alloa on a dreich Saturday afternoon with a much changed squad to face a team they had taken over a hundred points off three weeks ago.
Glenrothes rugby player Shaun GrayGlenrothes rugby player Shaun Gray
Glenrothes rugby player Shaun Gray

It was not long before the visitors opened the scoring with Steven Varney using his pace and power to take him past the defence and touch down in the corner.

He added a second try when the winger ran 50 yards to score before Duguid converted to give the Glens a ten-point cushion. A tight hamstring ended Varney’s game and he was replaced by Ross Wiggins who would go on to be Glens’ man of the match.

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The Reds were enjoying the opportunity to play wide open rugby and C J May scored the third try finishing off a flowing move. Duguid added the two.

It was no surprise when Shaun Gray grabbed the Glenrothes bonus points try, returning an Alloa clearance up the left wing before showing a great turn of pace to recover his own kick and touch down in the corner.

Duguid was unable to convert but provided Gray with his second try, creating space for the full back with a clever reverse pass allowing Gray to run in untroubled. Duguid converted.

The home team were panicking whenever Gray got the ball and they had no answer for his sprinting and jinking ability. He scored two more tries before the interval, with the final try of the half summing up his ability in broken play as he made a break from deep in his own territory and raced past most of the opposition players for his fourth and Glenrothes seventh try to make it 0-43 at half-time.

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The second half started as the first had ended. Gray grabbed another two tries from kicks by Duguid which he outpaced the defence to recover. Between these, Alloa grabbed their only try of the game when their pick and drive approach to the game finally bore fruit.

The Glens, and Gray were not finished. Taking a pass on half way, the fullback danced left and right to weave his way through the home team before converting his own try and taking his personal tally to 37 points from seven tries and a conversion.

Bryce rounded off the scoring with two more tries – Duguid converted both to give a final score of 7-74.

With the Six Nations starting on Friday, the Glens 1st XV next game is on February 23 when they entertain Ellon while the 2nds play Perthshire the previous week to round off their league season.