North Police Scotland 5, Grangemouth 53: Fair cop for Stags in Shield progress

The Stags won handsomely. Pic by Alan Murray.

They defended well, were on top in the scrums and looked dangerous with ball in hand despite several changes to personnel and positions.

They took the lead with a Skelton penalty before a well worked try from Weir, converted by Skelton on ten minutes.

Five minutes later Grangemouth added their second try. From a solid scrum on the home 22 Dempsey cut back on the angle to slice through the defence before stepping the fullback to score under the sticks. Skelton added the easy conversion. The Police had another good spell of possesssion but were unable to break down a solid defensive line from the Stags.

On the half hour mark Clyne beat the cover to score but the police scored before half-time for a score at the break of Police 5 Stags 24

The second period saw the Stags domnate possession and territory. After just two minutes of the half a turnover saw birthday boy Petrie collect the final pass to slide in at the corner for the score.

Try number 5 was a solo effort from Harvey who crashed through some poor attempted tackles to run in under the posts from 30 metres and leave Skelton a simple kick.

As the game entered the final quarter it was the skipper himself who was next on the scoresheet. He darted to the right and cut through the home backline to score in the corner. He was unable to convert his own try. A few minutes later Skelton almost added another but he knocked on as he dived for the corner. There was enough time left for Dempsey to add two further trys to complete his hat trick.

This week Grangemouth are back on league duty in Alloa with KO 3pm. The seconds had no game but will also be back in league action this Saturday as they face Montrose at Glensburgh at 3pm.

The ladies’ game against Kelso was cancelled last Sunday due to a waterlogged pitch.  This Sunday they are at home as they take on Livingston with KO 2pm.