Hugely entertaining battle in the sunshine.....

26/3/ 2022. Stirling County v Cartha Queens Park.

Hugely entertaining battle in the sunshine sees both teams score six tries convert five and secure one penalty.

Conditions were perfect for this match. Stirling came into the game following a 31-31 home draw against Watson’s and CQP a disappointing home defeat to Dundee.

After only two minutes CQP conceded a penalty and a minute later went behind when Stirling took their own line out ball and went over for an unconverted try. After only another four minutes Stirling increased their lead when they scored a converted try to give them a 12-0 lead. After seventeen minutes CQP were awarded their first penalty and five minutes later Chris Elliot scored a try behind the posts which Wayne Barnes converted. From the kick off Callum Folan was adjudged to have interfered with a Stirling player in the air and was yellow carded. Shortly after this Stirling scored again. The conversion was successful and the score moved to 19-7. CQP then scored a second try in the right hand corner courtesy of Jacob Adamson. With thirty two minutes played Stirling secured their try bonus with a converted try to move the score to 26-12. Just before the break Max Summers scored CQP's third try following a successful line out take when they drove over the Stirling line to move the score at the break 26-19 to Stirling.

Soon after the restart CQP levelled the score with a converted try following a clever chip ahead by Adamson which Geebs touched down. Stirling responded with a try following a line out. CQP reduced the leeway with a Wayne Burrows penalty to move the score to 33-29 in Stirlings' favour and with sixty one minutes played CQP finally took the lead with their fifth try by Michael Nellany, again Wayne converted the extra points. This was followed by an excellent try when Dante Alessandri gathered the ball well out and ran with total self belief to score in the corner. The very difficult conversion was executed successfully by Wayne. Stirling fought back and were rewarded with a penalty in front of the CQP posts which they potted to leave CQP with a seven point lead which was lost with three minutes of injury time on the clock to produce a final score of 43 points apiece.

With conditions perfect for running rugby the attendees at this match were entertained to a pulsating afternoon. From a CQP perspective it was disappointing to see a ten point lead disappear in the final few minutes but over the eighty minutes a draw was probably a fair outcome.

Elsewhere Watson’s picked up a point in their narrow away defeat to Kelso and Muir got nothing out of their encounter with Biggar. CQP now sit two points behind Watson’s. Both teams have a home game left v Heriots. CQP however have three other games left all away from home namely Ayr, Highland and Dundee. CQP are still giving away too many penalties but their performance v Stirling was a considerable improvement over the Dundee match.

The relatively small band of CQP supporters really made their presence felt at Stirling with vocal support way above their numbers. As one player said at the end it sounded like a home game. I am sure the firsts would really appreciate as much support as possible at Ayr this Friday. Time for our supporters to get fully behind the team as we try to retain our place in this league.