Grangemouth 12 Glenrothes 12: Coach Deacons thoughts confirmed

Aside from runaway league eladers,Strathmore and Dunfermline, the Glensburgh rugby boss reckons the remainder of the mid-table sides are as competitive as one another.

Glenrothes held the lead for most of the game and even with 14 men will feel they should have scored more points in the second half.

The Stags will look at their forward dominance and wonder how they did not convert pressure into points at the end of the first half and the coach was pleased with the effort of his squad in difficult conditions.

The Stags were still short of several players especially in the backs and fielded a midfield of Chapman, Shannon and Rutherford with Whitelaw coming in on the wing while up front McNab, Binnie and Harvey were back in the starting line up.

The weather turned foul just before kick off with heavy rain and a strong wind making conditions very difficult. Grangemouth had the advantage of the elements in the first half but after 10 minutes the visitors had their first visit to the Stags 22 and came away with a converted score.

Grangemouth tried to respond but failed to use the wind to their advantage and lost momentum by giving away numerous penalties at the breakdown. As the game entered the second quarter the Stags finally had some pressure on the Glens line and Harvey collected a pushover score.

Glenrothes almost increased their lead with a penalty but though the Stags laid siege to the line, the sides went into the break with a score each and the Fifers ahead.

Playing into the wind in the second period the Stags made a strong start before the visitors were reduced to 14 for a no-arm tackle, but the Stags were unable to cash in on the numerical advantage.

On 60 minutes Grangemouth were reduced to 14 when Binnie received a team yellow after several breakdown penalties. With 10 minutes to play the Glenrothes scrum half made a break in midfield and his angled kick for the corner saw his winger win the race for the touchdown. Crucially the conversion attempt was wide.

From the kick off the Stags were back on the attack with Whitelaw collecting the kick and driving to the 22. A couple of minutes later Grangemouth thought they had scored as Chapman sliced through the defence to dive over but the score was disallowed due to some obstruction. With the last play of the game Hind picked up from a scrum on the 22 and passed to Forsyth. The scrum half scampered away from the defence to round the fullback and score. Shannon slotted the conversion.