BT Premiership Stirling County ............................................ 15 Edinburgh Accies ........................................ 21 A below-par performance from Stirling County at a blustery Bridgehaugh, saw a revived Edinburgh Accies take the spoils, as the BT Premiership season reached the half-way mark.

County’s head coach Graeme Young was forced to make a number of personnel and positional changes from the side that lost narrowly at Currie the previous week.

With no allocated professionals available, and injuries and suspensions taking their toll, County brought back Craig Robertson on the left wing, Archie Russell at outside centre, Lewis Wynne at No.8, Cammy Fenton at hooker and Garry Mountford at prop.

Alex Black moved to stand-off with Ali Price starting at scrum-half. Douglas Westwood made his 1st XV debut as replacement hooker, with Aubrey Mncube and Jamie Urquhart recalled to the bench.

Accies were first out of the starting blocks, and had the bulk of possession and territory in the opening quarter, which saw the visitors go ahead in the seventh minute from an Alex Glashan penalty after County were caught off-side.

Accies extended their early lead four minutes later, when their full-back Ruaridh Young strode through midfield before his perfectly weighted kick-ahead was gathered by left-winger Matt Coupar, who touched down in the corner for the opening try. The conversion was missed, but it gave the visitors an eight-point lead.

County couldn’t keep the ball, and with Accies winning the set-piece, it was no surprise when the visitors increased their lead to 0-13 with 22 minutes played.

From a penalty line-out catch and drive, Accies’ scrum-half Ryan Godsmark picked up the ball to dive over and score an unconverted try to the far left of the posts.

County responded immediately with a 25-metre penalty from Jonny Hope reducing the leeway to 3–13 on 24 minutes.

The home side began to build momentum as the first-half drew to a close, and were held-up just short of the Accies’ try-line after a spell of concerted pressure.

From the resultant 5-metre scrum, County repeatedly drove forward, before the ball found Black, and the stand-off side-stepped the Accies’ rear-guard to score a try under the posts, converted by Hope to bring County back into contention at the break trailing 13-10.

County brought on Westwood for Fenton at hooker at the start of the second-half, but it was Accies who looked the sharper from the re-start, and Glashan successfully kicked a penalty after 43 minutes to give the visitors a 10–16 lead.

Ten minutes later, a penalty line-out take by County led to captain Struan Robertson getting the touchdown for a try in the left corner. The long-range conversion was missed, bringing County to within a point of the visitors at 15–16.

Shaun McDonald replaced Matt Smith, and straight from the re-start, Accies re-gained possession and exploited a gap in the County defensive line, only to be stopped just short of the try line.

Accies quickly recycled the ball and moved it wide for the over-lapping full-back Young to score an unconverted try in the right corner, giving the visitors a 15–21 lead, which they held onto for the win.