On Friday night, the 1XV were looking to respond to the team we had our weakest display of the season against as we welcomed Grangemouth Stags to the KGV.
At 3 minutes, Graham Kilby was sent to the sin bin for a high tackle. Grangemouth quickly capitalised on the one man advantage with a try but failed to convert. Shortly after, John McMurdo was also sent to the sin bin for chatting back to the referee. However, the two man advantage didn't do Grangemouth any good as the Kinross pack put in a huge shift, with Gordon Wood going over for the try. The conversion was missed by Blair Mackenzie bringing the score equal. We saw off the rest of the sin bin time without conceding any points. Grangemouth went over the line within the last 5 minutes of the half, which was converted as we headed into half time.
Kinross 5 - 12 Grangemouth

The second half opened with a try from Isaac Hodge, converted by Lewis Macpherson to equalise the scores. Kinross kept the pressure up with some huge defence, and the backs got to take the ball wide with Graham Kilby running it in for our third try of the evening, ably converted by Lewis Macpherson. Grangemouth didn't take the loss of the lead lying down, coming back with their own try which wasn't converted. Although they closed the gap in the points, they lost a player to the sin bin, giving us a one man advantage.
We quickly capitalised on that advantage with Stuart Hunter going over for the bonus point try, again converted by Lewis Macpherson. The final 10 minutes was an exercise in pressure which we kept on Grangemouth, until the final minutes where Grangemouth went over the line for their bonus point try which, once again, they couldn't convert.
Kinross 26 - 22 Grangemouth

There was so much good work on the pitch that we chose a Forward and a Back of the Match. Lewis Macpherson was our Forward of the Match - a second row, playing 8 and slotting kicks from all over the shop. Dan Hawkins was our Back of the Match - he played a great game from fly-half, keeping good control over the backs and gaining us needed metres from his boot.

Huge thanks to Grangemouth for agreeing to rearrange this fixture and coming up on a Friday night. We wish them the best for their 2 remaining games.

Another huge thanks to Alan of Alan Ruiz Photography for coming down and taking some amazing pictures of the match!