Stirling County 14 - 34 Heriot's: Heriot's in the driving seat as win over Stirling eases bus woes

AFTER this Scottish Hydro Premier Cup quarter-final had finished, three children were throwing a ball about on Bridgehaugh, the two bigger ones refusing to let their little brother join in despite all the screaming and stamping of feet.

It was a pretty fair analogy for what had just passed. The big boys from Heriot's arrived late after their bus broke down en route but once the Edinburgh club got down to business they rarely allowed County much ball to play with and the home side spent most of this match in tackling practice.

Stirling had already ejected two top– division teams from the competition and scored the first try of the match after two minutes, thanks to flanker Robbie Boswell, and they scored the best try of the match, when Ben Addison combined with Danny Gilmour in running back a turnover for more than 80 metres.

The home side led until the 50th minute, they were trailing by just five points with 15 minutes remaining and still they never looked remotely like winning this match.

County were missing some of their more experienced players, but even so, Heriot's simply brought too much muscle to bear, winning the breakdowns to such an extent that Stirling were forced to concede a mass of penalties which brought a smile to the face of Heriot's skipper Graham Wilson.

The classy scrum-half kicked the winning penalty last spring to help his club lift the silverware at Murrayfield and he struck again on Saturday with seven kicks from eight to claim a personal points tally of 19.

Playing into the first-half wind, Wilson's kicks staggered over the crossbar like a drunk at throwing-out time. With the elements at his back after the break the scrum-half hit one from 50 yards that sailed over with legs to spare.

"It was important that we kept in touch with County in that first half when we were playing into the wind," said Wilson. "I wasn't particularly worried when they scored that breakaway try just before half-time, more annoyed, because we could have had a try ourselves at the other end of the field.

"It acted as a bit of a wake-up call for the lads.

"We had a few words at half-time and reminded everyone that we couldn't just sit back and expect the wind to win this game for us on its own, we needed to go out there and make it happen.

"In fairness the score probably flattered us a little because County were within touching distance with ten minutes to go. We were just content to play the game in their half of the field and we came up with two tries, so we'll take that."

Syme claimed the first try for Heriot's after his forward pack drove a five metre scrum over the line and Marc Teague struck twice late in the game to give the score a lopsided look that it didn't deserve.

Scorers: Stirling County: Try: Boswell, Addison. Con: Archibald (2). Heriots: Try: Syme, Teague (2). Con: Wilson (2), Pen: Wilson (5).

Stirling County: MacGowan; Lindsay, Gilmour, Archibald, Addison; Hope, McRorie; Hunter, Moffat, Black, Mountford, Deacons, Boswell, Clarke, Bersanti. Subs used: Simpson. Donaldson, Faill, Lyle.

Heriot's: Goudie; Teague, Saunders, Mill, Nimmo; Rutherford, Wilson; Dymock, Gillies, Blacklock, O'Connor, Osazuwa, Hill, Eccles, Syme. Subs used: Bryce, Welch, Reid, Johnson.

Referee: G Knox.