Greenock Telegraph | Sport | Wanderers toil on the road as defeats mount

Friday, 9th January, 2009

Published: Monday, 1st October, 2007 12:30

Wanderers toil on the road as defeats mount

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TRY-ING HARD: Jason Smith scored a late solo try for Wanderers at Garnock on Saturday.

Garnock 55,

Greenock Wanderers 12

Garnock secured the points in an entertaining game at Lochshore on Saturday with a powerful performance in front of a healthy crowd.

Wanderers, to be fair, played their part and competed well throughout the 80 minutes, but were eventually overcome by the hosts as they remain joint top of the First Division.

Skipper Dave Craven had the locals fired up for their biggest test of the season to date and indeed it was Wanderers who were quickest out the block, seizing the early initiative.

Aggressive rucking and crisp delivery from scrum half Andy McDougall combined to put Garnock on the back foot and when Craven intruded into the back line in five minutes, the overlap was created and his pass put Kieron Smith in at the corner for the opening try. Ant Devlin converted and the visitors were seven points up.

Garnock’s response was swift, but Wanderers were in determined mood and willing to scrap for every ball. In 14 minutes an overthrow at a lineout near Wanderers’ line fell kindly to old warhorse Alan Brocket and he forced his way over the line. Full back Kurt Jacobson converted and the tie was level.

Wanderers continued on the offensive but mishandling in the Garnock half led to Jacobson pouncing on the loose ball and a sweeping move took the play to Wanderers’ line. Lock forward Ryan O’Neill was on hand to touch down and Jacobson once more slotted from the tee to put the hosts ahead at 14-7 which was, at that point, much against the run of play. Worse was to follow though for the locals as firstly Jacobson, then centre John Lyons, scored for the hosts after crisp back play to stretch the lead to 24-7 at half-time.

In 43 minutes stand-off Gareth McCrorie waltzed through the Wanderers defence for a fine solo try and in 50 minutes a break by brother Paul McCrorie found winger Stuart White supporting who showed electric pace as he took the pass and went over in the corner. Jacobson converted one of the scores but at 36-7 the match was over as a contest.

Five minutes later, Wanderers captain Dave Craven was sin-binned for protesting to referee Ian Morrison about his application of the rucking laws.

From the resultant penalty the ball was played into touch and a catch and drive from the lineout led to lock Ryan O’Neill getting his second try of the afternoon.

In 73 minutes a further penalty move led to No.8 Ross Miller going over and Jacobson added the conversion points to make the score 48-7.

Referee Morrison produced the yellow card twice more in quick succession and Wanderers’ Kevin Murray and Garnock’s John Lyons both entered the sin-bin for ruck infringements.

Wanderers continued to plug away and secured a second try when Jason Smith kicked ahead over the hosts line and won the race for the touch down, but the final word went to Garnock when scrum half McCrorie outstripped the locals’ defence for a fine solo try. Centre Chrissy Neill added the conversion and completed the scoring at 55-12.

Wanderers: K Murray, J Smith, D Murray, C Clark, K Smith, A Devlin, A McDougall, D Craven [C], R Lavelle, M Rodger, S Bleasdale, J Mooney, A Abernethy, C Robb, G Mooney. Replacements all used, L Scully, J Stewart, and D Paton.

l Wanderers are sponsored by National Semiconductor (UK) Ltd.

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