GRAMMAR HOPES ARE FADING RAPIDLY
Musselburgh 15
Grammar's slim hopes of a
quick return to the top flight of the Scottish club game were dealt a near
certain fatal blow when they failed to beat struggling Musselburgh
at Stoneyhill on Saturday.
Head coach Mike O'Donovan
was reluctant to write off his side from the promotion race, but admitted it
would be a major achievement if it went up.
After the 15-8 reverse he
said: "It's never over until the fat lady sings, but once again we failed
to cash in on our chances.
"I'm bitterly
disappointed at the way in which we let ourselves down, particularly after
fighting our way back into the game in the second half."
Grammar turned around 5-3 in
arrears, closing the half with a superbly struck penalty from full back Andrew
Ritchie to give themselves every opportunity of
victory.
"When centre Ashley
McCulloch gave us the lead early in the second half with a try I thought we
were on our way, but once again we lost direction and paid the penalty, losing
two tries to their very effective use of the rolling maul.
"In truth they played
to their strengths and we once again let ourselves down through naive tactics
and missed opportunities," said an exasperated O'Donovan, who must be
wondering what he has to do to turn around the fortunes of his side.
The first three games of
2008 are unlikely to bring the Grammar head coach any comfort as they have the
three leading sides in the league to test their already tattered nerves.
"If we can win those
we'll be back in business," said a hopeful O'Donovan, who was pleased to recognise his side's defensive capacities, but could find
little else to give him cheer, especially as Grammar has slumped to 19 points
behind leaders Biggar.
Musselburgh's tryscorers were Brian Porteous, Jim Ryan and Brian Sutherland.