Scottish Hydro Electric National Division 3
Saturday, 23rd January 2010
Kick-Off
Marr travelled north to Aberdeen to take on fourth placed Gordonians in their race for promotion. Gordoinans have won nine games this season. This was the first game of 2010 for both teams as the weather had brought the league to a halt with neither team having played since the 12th of December when both teams lost. Marr lost a tight encounter at Trinity 6-0; Gordonians lost 45-12 at Ross High. Marr were short a couple of key players with Rory McGee out with a knee injury Andrew Gault moved from full back to Stand off. Prop Fraser Ferguson made his return from injury, not having played since the 3rd of October.
The weather did not play its part as the cold combined with a heavy pitch did not make for running rugby. Gordonians started the brighter dominating the first twenty minutes but the Marr forwards defensive effort kept the home side at bay. Steven Kirk in particular put in a good defensive performance during this period. On the whole the first half was a mixed bag with both teams working hard despite the poor conditions. Marr’s scrum functioned well and the back row and scrum half managed to disrupt the Gordonians ball helping to keep the home side from scoring. The first half ended scoreless.
The Marr back line went through further disruption in the first half when an injury to full back Nathan Gilmore meant that he had to come off and Gault moved back to Full Back and Sean Reddox moved to Stand Off.
The first five minutes saw the home side finally making the breakthrough as they ran in the first and only score of the game, taking the score to 7-0. The rest of the second half saw both teams have chances that they were unable to take advantage of, a combination of cold hands and rustiness resulted in a lot of dropped passes and missed chances.
This was always going to be a tough encounter as both teams had not played a competitive game in over a month this combined with the bad weather conditions limited the chances for both sides. Marr worked hard in defence and the scrum functioned well throughout the game.
Next weekend sees the league leader’s travel to Fullarton Park with a 3pm kick off. Training continues on Tuesday and Thursday nights a 7pm and anyone wishing to play is welcome to come along and join in.
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