Burgh best Bankies in real Boorach

As a Clyde-side derby match with feisty exchanges, blood, guts and snotters flying everywhere, and a hugely controversial ending, this ramstoorie was certainly not one for the purists.
There wasn’t much silky rugby on show, with the ball skelped back and forth with abandon, and neither side building phases, in favour of solo stravaigs or lumpen plowters from the packs, none of which amounted to a hill of beans.
But a boorach is a boorach… and this ding-dong delighted the large crowd all the way to as zany a finish as has been seen at Ardencaple for many a year.
The Bankies will feel hard done by… it has to be said. While Burgh’s win was built on outstanding defensive effort, the visitors were the better drilled side (must be something to do with going to training?) and enjoyed both territorial advantage and possession for much of the match. But in the autumnal sunshine, it was that old chestnut, Burgh’s bravery in tackling again and again, that won them the points.
Bankies took an early 3-0 lead but Burgh responded well, Alex Macauley showing astonishing 0-60 speed in leaving his opposite winger for dead, before feeding the ever-supporting Sam King who took play inside the visitor’s 22. Craig Calderwood breenged on but was held up just short of the line and when Clydebank infringed, Calum O’Brien tied the scores after 14 minutes.
Lock Adam Hepworth then prevented a certain try with Bankies loading the blind-side, his jackal at the ruck saving the day, before Sam King and David Sterry combined to put Dan Sellars away, but the referee had spotted a forward pass.
Then the breakthrough Burgh needed: from a ruck on the Bankies’ 10-metre line, the ball squirted out and Ali Rogers showed tremendous strength and determination to race clear of grasping tackles to swan-dive over the line. O’Brien’s conversion missed as did a Clydebank penalty attempt soon after and Burgh led 8-3 at half-time.
A dull 10-minute spell opened the second half then Clydebank began to threaten, one move only stopped by bold defence by Cammy King and the irrepressible Josh Burgess. The Bankies then contrived to throw away two clear try-scoring opportunities through bad handling on the hour mark, while worryingly Burgh were giving away far too many penalties.
It turned a bit rambunctious as the referee lost patience, it seemed, with the niggle, and in turn he yellow-carded a Bankies’ player for dissent and then Burgh sub Sam McGinn for a deliberate knock-on, as the game entered the final 10 crazy minutes.
A contentious penalty award for Burgh – after Bankies had driven Burgh off their own scrum-ball – gave O’Brien sight of goal and it was 11-3, then Wallace had a barn-storming run up the midfield before being stopped just short of the line, with Burgh then penalised. Still the home side scented blood, Rogers and McGinn carving open another opportunity, but the ref then bizarrely halted play because two Bankies players were down injured, though neither seemed head-related.
From the scrum re-start, Rogers, Sam King and the industrious Calderwood made in-roads before the ref pinged Clydebank for hands in the ruck, allowing O’Brien to coolly slot another penalty for 14-3.
If the crowd thought that was madcap, what followed was just pure mayhem… as the clock bonged for injury time, Clydebank won a scrum on Burgh’s 22. Their pack pundied Burgh’s backwards but were still some metres from the line when, to the disbelief of the home support, the referee awarded a penalty try.
Four points in it, and four minutes still to play signalled the whistler! Back stormed the Bankies, hell-bent on snatching victory. Another sure-fire try looked on with numbers wide but the pass was spilled and Burgh breathed again, hoofing the oval downfield to ease the pressure.
Then the defining moment: Clydebank surged into Burgh’s half, where a clever grubber ran in behind the home defence and was scooped up and grounded for the winning try – Bankies go bonkers! Haud yer wheesht, cried the referee who ruled the player had been in front of the kicker and so disallowed the score. Cue Burgh bedlam.
It was that kind of game!
Burgh: Sterry, Macauley, Rogers, O’Brien, Sellars, Bowman, Burgess, Jamieson, Cameron King, Ard, Sampson, Hepworth, Calderwood, Sam King, Wallace. Subs: Ramsay, Girvan, McGinn.