Mid Argyll hit the ton against Glasgow Raptors

Next to cross soon after was Dan Broderick as he bulldozed his way through the defence, followed quickly by Long’s opener for the day - a quick tap from a penalty let Robbie Herd make ground before a sweet little pass outside sent Long through.

During this phase of play Lindsay was shown a yellow card for a team, persistent high tackle warning. Ritchie then completed a fantastic first half hattrick before Innes Paterson finished the half off.

With six successful conversions for the Boars and only a penalty kick in reply from the home team the score was 3 – 52 at the break.

Only a minute into the second half, and after Lindsay had re-joined the game, Mid Argyll were down to 14 again when Robbie MacTavish was unlucky this time to be handed a team yellow for persistent high tackles. This didn’t reflect the massive contribution he was making to the team’s success at this point.

Ali Peterson was first on the score sheet in the second half. Some great forward work almost saw, first, Jason Hammond and then Ali MacInnes held just short of the line.

The ball was sprayed out wide and Peterson picked his opening and crossed below the posts and then completed the conversion.

Hammond did eventually get on the score sheet following a great passage of play where he was released by a MacDonald “basketball” pass to jog in under the posts.

The Boars then gave first team debuts to Santo Pia and Donald Self. They were straight into the thick of the action as a scrum was called and they played prop and no.8 respectively. Also entering the pitch was Alex Smith, who replaced Campbell on the wing.

Next to cross for the visitors was Charnock. It was the captain’s first league try for the club and finished off yet another flowing move through the backs as he dodged his way across the line out wide, taking a defender with him as he touched down.

Good work from MacInnes at the restart secured the ball and a line breaking charge from Ethan Thomas again had the Boars in the home half.

Calum Paterson, now on at scrum half, dug the ball out of the ruck and released to Self, a quick outside pop pass released Long, who broke the first tackle, and there was no stopping him as he went under the posts from the halfway line. 

Raptors came into the game for the next 10 minutes and made the contest uncomfortable for the Boars. Then from another well worked forward/back combination, the devastating Ritchie was put through for his fourth of the game. Great running from Peterson broke the line and as he was being closed down Ritchie was on his shoulder to take the pass and speed over the line.

Mid Argyll were almost on the score sheet again immediately when Freddie Williams took off down the wing knocking defenders over to get into the home half.

Hammond took the pass and moved it to C Paterson who popped it to Self. Hammond made up amazing ground to take the next pass but just couldn’t control the ball which would have rounded off a perfect day for the prop.

From the resulting scrum Long charged down the ball and a goal line dropout was given. Ruaridh Condie caught the ball and returned the attack to within 10 metres.

MacInnes took over and was almost rewarded for all his hard work as he went close but was brought down just short. Self was the first player there and he made the most of it with a quick carry and powered over the line for his first senior try.

With three minutes left to play Mid Argyll were 90 points to three up but desperate to finish the day off in style.

From the restart Calum Paterson caught the ball, off loaded to Hammond, who carried to the halfway line, a neat inside pass as he was tackled was returned to Paterson and there was no stopping him as he skipped past four players to go in under the sticks.

From the final restart, Mid Argyll secured the ball, with solid running from MacInnes and Condie which then allowed Charnock to break onto the centre spot.

A good carry from Pia had Mid Argyll in the Raptors 10-metre line and from here the ball was moved to the opposite wing where a forward pass stopped play for a scrum to the home side.

A great tackle came from Long as Raptors looked to mount a final attack and saw the ball spilled and as Long scooped it up there looked no way through, but he danced passed two and charged for the line leaving the defence behind him. To top the day off he converted his try with the ball hitting the outside post and bouncing through.

With five successful conversions in this half, the game ended Glasgow Raptors 3 – Mid Argyll 104.

Despite the score line, this was a very physical game and the boars were made to work hard for the win.

Player of the match had to go to Liam Long for his all-round display, but there were a lot of excellent performances throughout the team and an amazing 4 try haul from Ritchie.

Everyone at the club would like to thank their travelling support and sponsors Jolomo Studio, Hedricks Genetics, Glic and Fyne Ales for their continued backing. The next game is at home to Glasgow Uni Medics on March 22, kick-off 3pm.