Cumnock 41 – 7 Millbrae

Earlier in the season, the experienced Millbrae team took a bonus point victory over Cumnock but the home side turned the tables on the visitors with an exciting display of running rugby.
Millbrae gave away a penalty with the opening move of the match after smart Cumnock defence led to the Millbrae runner getting isolated. Kyle Johnson calmly slotted the kick and the young fly half added a second penalty minutes later to give his side a six point lead. Cumnock’s fast start continued with breaks from Tony Foster and Gregor McMillan keeping the visitors on the back foot. Alan Haynes showed what Cumnock have missed while he has been away with a scything break down the right hand touch line before flipping a pass infield to Jamie Thompson. Back row Thompson surged for the line and appeared to have scored but the referee decided a Millbrae player had managed to prevent the grounding.
Cumnock kept the pressure on through powerful runs from Graham Dick and Donald Hunter and Millbrae were unable to clear the ball very far as Cumnock kept running back at them. Reliable line out ball with hooker Graham Hunter hitting Blair McMillan helped and a strong run from Scott Houston eventually won Cumnock a scrum deep in Millbrae territory. The ball was spun wide quickly for Stewart Magorian to canter through a gaping hole in the Millbrae defence for Cumnock’s first try, converted by Johnson.
Millbrae’s attempts to bring their powerful ball carriers into the game were constantly stopped with big hits from Magorian and Alan Smith halting the visitor’s progress. Johnson added a third penalty after some more Millbrae ill discipline which was starting to become a major problem for the away side as they grew more and more frustrated. Cumnock passed up a great chance for a second try when a double tackle from Blair McMillan and Alan Smith resulted in loose ball which was picked up by Graham Hunter. He broke up the touchline but the supporting runners weren’t able to gather his pass and the chance was gone.
Cumnock continued to pressure their guests in the second half with their discipline starting to disappear as they constantly gave away penalties and talking back at the referee didn’t help their cause as the penalties were moved further up the pitch. Scott Houston kept Millbrae on their feet with a series of quick taps allowing the increasingly influential centre pairing of Magorian and Haynes to run at the frayed visiting defence. Millbrae eventually broke as they lost a player to the sin bin for a professional foul to prevent Houston from taking another quick tap. Johnson’s penalty kick crept over from long range and Millbrae were soon reduced to thirteen men when another player was sin binned for charging Tony Foster. Cumnock capitalised on their advantage with replacement Craig Greer running in a try after Millbrae were turned over in contact. Johnson again added the extras. Cumnock might have added another when Rab Cross showed an unexpected turn of pace in midfield to release Haynes. Foster was unable to gather the pass though and another good scoring chance was thrown away.
Millbrae came back strongly, playing a more suitable style of rugby, keeping the ball tight and using their size advantage to carefully work their way to the line before powering over from short range. This was a temporary blip for the rampant home side who added another penalty through Johnson as yet another yellow was shown to the visitors. Rab Cross grabbed a try in the corner after some powerful Cumnock drives took them close before another penalty allowed Houston to go quickly and slip the ball to Cross who was never going to be stopped from five metres out. The imperious Johnson added the difficult touchline conversion and Cumnock set about getting a fourth try to win a bonus point.
By this point Millbrae were giving away penalties at every opportunity and Cumnock took advantage to work their way up to the try line. Millbrae managed to pinch the ball but man of the match Scott Houston intercepted a pass before dummying his way to the line to finish the game off. Johnson finally missed a kick but by this point it didn’t really matter as the final whistle blew leaving Cumnock to savour an impressive victory.
This was probably the first time that the young Cumnock team managed to implement a game plan for the full eighty minutes and it showed as they ran a ragged Millbrae side all over the pitch, often leaving the visitors chasing shadows. This maintains an unbeaten home record stretching back to September and means that Cumnock have now won their last five matches in a row. This bonus point win also means that they leapfrog Millbrae and Clydebank to move up to fourth in the table and on this kind of form they should be aiming to improve on that by the end of the season.

Team: Donald Hunter, Graham Hunter, Rab Cross, Blair McMillan, Graham Dick, Alan Smith, David Kerr, Jamie Thompson, Scott Houston, Kyle Johnson, Tony Foster, Stewart Magorian, Alan Haynes, Gregor McMillan, Conner Nisbet, Craig Greer, Euan Cunningham, Craig McWhirter