New low for Marress Men

Nov 6 2009 by John Woods, Irvine Herald

IT was a Hallowe’en horror show as a below-strength Irvine Rugby Club went down 69-12 in Saturday’s Premier 3 game at Howe of Fife on Saturday.

The only bright spot was that the Marress Men won the last quarter by dint of scoring two tries – the black spot was that they were 62 points down at the time.

Tries from McLean, Iain Aitken (2), Wardlaw, Mason and Imrie, with Aitken kicking four conversions gave the Fifers a decisive 38-0 interval lead.

And, just to make matters worse, all four of Irvine's replacements had been committed as a series of first half injuries added to the club’s ever-growing treatment list.

The one way traffic continued after the break with Wardlaw, Wilson, Ross Aitken and Imrie crossing the line before Irvine hit back with a fine try off a solid scrum after Blair shipped the ball to the onrushing Robbie Stewart who drew the defence before passing the ball to Tony Wright for a try which Stewart then converted.

This heralded Irvine's best period of the match and, in 69 minutes the visitors turned their pressure into points when Cliff Blair came off the back of a ruck to score.

However, that was the last hurrah and Howe put the game to bed with yet another try, this time from Steedman in the last minute. Aitken again converted to leave Howe 69-12 winners and condemn Irvine to heir worst defeat for several seasons.

Irvine have some of the missing players back this weekend and the next two weeks are vital to the club’s hopes of beating the drop with Perthshire and Musselburgh visiting Marress in that order.

Spectators should note that games will now kick off at 2pm over the winter period.

Saturday’s Second XV match was cancelled due to the lack of a referee, which is a disgraceful situation given the number of referees that Irvine give to the system.

The 2nds now have a four week gap before their next league game.