Kilburn Cosmos 19 - Old Abbotstonians 20
The Kilburn Cosmos dug themselves further into relegation danger with a loss to fellow strugglers Old Abbotstonians on Saturday. The 20-19 loss leaves them with just 2 points and in 2nd last place on the table, 4 points behind Abbotstonians.
Hopes were high that this game would see a turn around in the seasons fortunes for the Cosmos. But despite a good build up and the importance of the game the team still lacked urgency from the kickoff, conceding a converted try after just 3 minutes when a high ball into the Cosmos 22 was allowed to bounce, toed through into the ingoal and pounced upon by an Abbotstonian player.
Abbotstonians went another try up after 15 minutes with a brilliant lineout move in the Cosmos 22.
This finally woke the Cosmos up and they piled on the pressure for the next 15 minutes. A massive size advantage in the midfield looked to be the key for the Cosmos but numerous breaks by centres Peter Donaldson and Richey Cunninghame were shut down by scrambling defence and some costly turnovers.
After 30 minutes the pressure finally told and the Cosmos managed to make use of an overlap in the backs to send wing Mo Taguri in for a try out wide which was converted by fly half Andy Allan.
The turnaround was shortlived with Abbotstonians kicking a penalty 5 minutes later. The resulting kickoff was poor from the Cosmos giving the Abbotstonians a chance to run from mid pitch. A bad missed tackle by Cunninghame allowed them to break through and score in the corner taking the score to 20-7 which it remained at halftime.
The Cosmos still felt they had a huge chance in the game, feeling they were easily the better team but knowing they had to focus on a basic game plan of dominating possession and territory.
This paid dividends when captain Aly Bursey stormed over after 10 minutes in the half. The conversion by Allan taking the score to 20-14.
The Cosmos joy was shortlived soon after as after using their 2 subs at half time Kilburn were reduced to 14 men when lock John Fenlon ,who had been having another storming game, went off injured.
Immediately after Kilburn looked to be in huge trouble when Abbotstonians excellent No8 made yet another break from halfway and looked to be certain to score and take the game away from the Cosmos but a brilliant chase and tackle from Donaldson saw him hold up the Abbotstonians player 1 metre from the tryline. Under huge pressure on their tryline things suddenly got a lot worse for the Cosmos in the very next play when captain Aly Bursey was sent to the sin bin for killing the ball, leaving Kilburn with 13 men and facing an Abbotstonians 5 metre scrum. Excellent defence saw the Cosmos stop the attack then turnover the ball and clear to the halfway in what should have been a game turning moment. Fenlon bravely came back on and eventually Kilburn were restored to their full complement and looked set to take the game.
Big wing Gav Smales, in his comeback, looked set to win the game when he intercepted the ball in his own half and raced down the sideline only to get hauled down with 15 metres to go and give away a penalty for holding on.
With less than 10 minutes to go more pressure from Kilburn saw Andy Allan crash over after a 5 metre scrum to make it 19-20 and give himself a shot winning the game but unfortunately his conversion narrowly missed.
The last few minutes saw the Cosmos attacking from all over the pitch but in their quest for the winning points players found themselves in the wrong positions and passes going to the wrong people and again the final whistle went with the Cosmos agonisingly close to pulling off a victory but not good enough.
Player of the day went to veteran No 8 Shayne Whyte, who was playing his 50th 1st XV league game, a massive effort by the club stalwart. Fellow veteran Richey Cunninghame and his centre partner Peter Donaldson received the other MVP points. Top performances were also turned in by Hayden McKenzie and Chris Protherough in the front row, Paul Ledington and Fenlon in the second row and as usual flanker Aly Bursey who was captain for the day. Tom O'Connor also made an impact as a sub in the second half and Gav Smales looked a likely attacking weapon when given the ball.
Unfortunately the best player on the pitch and the key to the result was the Abbotstonians no8 - brilliant running, punishing defence, turnovers, killing Kilburns ball - well played
Kilburn 19 (Mohammed Taguri, Aly Bursey, Andy Allan tries, Allan 2 cons, pen)
Team: Hayden McKenzie, Chris Protherough, Ben Zaug, John Fenlon, Paul Ledington, Shayne Whyte, Aly Bursey, Kurt Shrubsole, Liam MacManus, Andrew Allan, Karlos Gordon, Richey Cunninghame, Peter Donaldson, Mohammed Taguri, Chris Coane. Res: Tom O’Connor, Gavin Smales
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