From the home side’s perspective, this is probably a game they’ll wish to consign to the ‘bad day at the office’ stack and hope that it remains there in splendid isolation. GHK didn’t play anywhere near their potential or, indeed, the standard they had shown last season and in the one previous home game this season where they had fairly comfortably seen off a previously undefeated Highland side.

Stirling County were worthy winners of the game and must have had their coaches tearing their collective hair out at the number of clear-cut try-scoring chances they spurned when it seemed they must score only for a poor decision – mainly not passing to the player or players in support, poor execution of the pass or some desperate scrambling defence by the hosts resulting in a missed opportunity.

To be honest, this was the main reason that the game wasn’t done and dusted long before the end as GHK struggled to get any continuity or cohesion into their attacking game and compounded this by some poor kicking from hand, particularly in the first half, when they playing into an admittedly tricky wind which didn’t seem to be as influential after the break.

That some of the home support felt the result had gone against them in somewhat controversial circumstances is not to deny that the match was won by the better team on the day. More on that later.

County started much the better and a clean break through the centre after only two minutes hinted that they could be ruthless when given the opportunity. A converted try resulted to give them an early lead. They should have doubled that lead when, with a penalty advantage, they butchered the first of the aforementioned opportunities, a clear forward pass causing them to have to take the consolation of the three points on offer. Ten points behind with less than 10 minutes on the clock was not the start that the home side had been looking for.

GHK however, after conceding an early scrum penalty, began to establish a clear superiority in the tight with the home forwards getting the nudge on in just about every scrum and building territory through resulting penalties.  In pretty much identical fashion this led to both tries that GHK scored in the first half with penalties to touch followed by well-executed drives leading to a brace of touchdowns for GHK captain Paul Henderson. With both tries scored wide out, neither was successfully converted.

With just three points separating the teams and GHK pressing as half time approached there seemed to have been a momentum shift but a home attack broke down well inside the County 22, from which the visitors took full advantage to move the ball the length of the park and score in the corner with an excellent conversion following to take the half-time score to 10-20.

There was little in the way of good quality rugby in the second half with neither side able to exert control or keep possession for phases. Line-outs were seemingly more likely to be won by the team not throwing in and handling errors and breakdown infringements reduced the game to a rather disjointed, staccato affair.

The one bright spot, for GHK remained the scrum which they continued to dominate to the extent that one of the Stirling props received a yellow card and, even after his period off the park was over, the visitors conceded a penalty try to bring the score to 17-20 with over 10 minutes still to play.

Any thoughts, however, that the home side could continue to press home their advantage in the tight were removed when Stirling County informed the referee that they were unable to field a full front row resulting in the scrums becoming uncontested for the remainder of the game.

As it happened, there were perhaps only as few as three or four scrums in the remainder of the game but there is no doubt that having them uncontested definitely suited the visitors much more than GHK with the only further score a penalty to County to bring the final score to 17-23.

Given that there was relatively little to enthuse about in the game, particularly from the home side’s perspective, let me offer a personal thought on the issue of  ‘uncontested scrums’.

Clearly, player safety has to be paramount and no-one would want to place anyone in danger by having to scrum in the front row in a position where they had no experience.  Equally clearly, neither the referee nor any medical staff could be in a position to rule on the genuineness of injuries in a game this level – we’ve seen the problems there have been with this at international level.  If, however, one team is unable to participate safely in an important aspect of the game, should they retain equity in that aspect?  In other words, if you don’t have a functioning scrum why should you be able to gain possession from it?

There may be no totally satisfactory outcome from such a situation, but would it not be a ‘less worse’ result if the side who could no longer scrum safely have to forego any possession from that set piece? Just a thought.

As previously indicated, I think few would argue that the better side won on Saturday. Would they have done so if scrums had been contested for the last ten or so minutes of the game? Quite possibly.

Anyway, if truth to be told, whilst there was no lack of effort from the GHK side and with several regular starters still ruled out, there were fewer genuine contenders for the Edinburgh Gin Player of the Match so it was a repeat award to Gus North for another solid defensive display allied to a couple of good breaks.

Next week it’s away to Melrose who are so pleased to welcome our return to The Greenyards that they are holding an Oktoberfest in our honour!