Report by Dave Hamilton

The Blues welcomed Stirling County to a bright but cold Beveridge Park for the opening match of 2024, hoping for a victory to start the year off in a positive manner. The previous game at Bridgehaugh had been dominated by powerful running by the County number 8 and genuine pace from the County wings, coupled with a slow start for Kirkcaldy which hadn’t helped their cause.

The Blues started briskly forcing two early line outs in decent positions to attack, the referee however was very sharp to spot an extra roll forward by Craig Hamilton as he made yards off the back of the driven line out. Further pressure from Kirkcaldy led to a penalty opportunity for the Blues following repeated offside from County, but the kick was missed.

A positive start, then County struck following some good play and a very decent tackle from Robbie Penman, which unfortunately was offloaded for County to take the lead, the try was well converted and it was 0-7 to County after 9 minutes.
Kirkcaldy had certainly upped their game compared to the previous encounter and some powerful running by Rory Brown and Rhys Bonner were causing problems through the centre of the park for Stirling.
Despite this, County went further ahead after Kirkcaldy had made a poor choice to kick away their advantage with another decent try on the counter attack, duly converted it was 0-14.

Further evidence that despite going behind, the Blues had done their homework followed when Rory Brown, Rhys Bonner and then Craig Hamilton put some serious effort into stopping the County no.8 as he attempted to repeat his endeavours from Bridgehaugh.
Kieran Mitchell was sharp off the back of the scrum and was giving the County scrum half a torrid time and forcing mistakes and handling errors. Sometimes it was legal, sometimes not, and the referee was sharp once more to either penalise our no.7 or let him continue to harass the scrum half.
Pressure from the Blues resulted in a yellow card for the visitors for persistent offside offences and the referee had had enough of this tactic.
From the resultant penalty Rory Brown forced himself through the County defence for a powerful try which Fin Smith converted. 7-14 after 22 mins.

Some good play from the Blues was squandered after a forward pass gave away possession after a neat line out had put the Blues in a positive attacking position. Stirling moved the ball well and against the run of play scored again out wide, this was unconverted and the score was 7-19. A bit of frustration set in and Owen Bonner was yellow carded for his robust response to an exchange with a County player.

Down to 14 players, the Blues set about taking the game to the visitors, whose coaching team were getting a bit vocal regarding the shackling of their scrum half by Kieran Mitchell, and you could tell things were starting to brew between these players. However, this closing down of the scrum half and the no.8 was working a treat for the home side and you could tell it was game on despite the score line.

Some really good play from the backs gained a penalty and it was kicked perfectly for a line out on the County 22. A trademark line out followed and some brilliant link up play followed with Rory Brown crashing through for his second try of the day, duly converted by Fin Smith it was 14-19 going into half time.

The second half began as the first half ended, some good link up play with Craig Hamilton offloading to his Captain in a good central position, but uncharacteristically the ball was knocked on and let the visitors off the hook. Jack Denton replaced Seb Evans after 8 minutes of the second half and the jousting between Kieran Mitchell and the scrum half continued much to the delight of the home crowd and the ire of the visiting coaching team.

Following two good scrums for the Blues, a period of concerted pressure on the visitors allowed a gap to open and Mark Duckett gleefully stepped through to score under the posts, levelling the scores and a straight forward kick for Fin Smith put the Blues ahead 21-19 after 58 minutes played.

This was turning into a really good game to watch, County with their playing through the hands game being frustrated by dogged Blues aggression, big carries from Rhys Bonner and Rory Brown and some great yards made by the Kennedy twins taking the game to the visitors, who although were on the back foot looked dangerous on the break.

More offside from the visitors, which led to some lengthy chats with the referee by the visiting players and lots of frustration on show proving once more that the sheer determination of the home side was paying dividends.
The brewing feud between scrum half and Kieran Mitchell eventually boiled over with the pair exchanging some blows, it was inevitable that a yellow would follow for the visitors 9, and a red for Kieran Mitchell presumably for landing more blows than his opponent.

Both teams at 14 players had a bit more room to play, however Kirkcaldy hemmed County into their own half and following a good break from Fin Smith led to Rory Brown and Owen Bonner making forward progress and pushing Stirling back towards their own 22.
Stirling were not giving up without a fight and some great defence by them earned a scrum put in which enabled the visitors to get up the pitch towards the halfway line, the Blues came back at the visitors and again Stirling were caught offside twice in their desperate attempts to break out of defence.

Numerical advantage was restored for the visitors as the 10 minute yellow card elapsed, but the clock was ticking away towards full time.
More pressure to and fro around the visitors 22, and a timely ”jackal” by Craig Hamilton to rob the ball cleanly, despite County pressure earned a penalty as the referee made it clear that this was the last play of the game.
Fin Smith put the ball out of play and it was a great performance from the Blues to see off a strong Stirling County side 21-19.