Aberdeen Grammar face an uphill battle after a 56-39 defeat at home to Jed-Forest who until Saturday had not won a game in the Premiership.
There was just nowhere to hide for the beleaguered Rubislaw side who have conceded 20 tries in three outings, nine of them to Jed who must have been surprised at the ease of the victory.
Jed head coach Scott Tomlinson said: “Normally this would be a hard place to come but we played well today and with eight players under 19 in the team I am very proud of our achievement.”
Grammar head coach Ali O’Connor said: “It has been a difficult week in which a young player broke his leg in training, plus having to make eight changes for this game.
“Once again we failed to make our tackles and paid the penalty.
“It will be something we will be addressing in training.
“There was a high penalty count against us which did not help.
“I would like to see the video before we meet up again next week. I thought winger Craig Shepherd had a good game for us.”
A red card for Grammar’s German internationalist Matt Schosser, one of the more passionate home players, did not help the cause but came nowhere near to explaining the defensive lapses in the home ranks.
The final outcome was hard to fathom, especially as after half an hour, Grammar were leading 13-5 and seemed more than up to the challenge, only to collapse in the face of some strong purposeful running by the young Jed back division to trail 27-20 at the break.
Despite scoring immediately after half time, the Aberdeen side disappeared from the game, conceding a further four tries and only coming back when it was all but over.
The five home try scorers were Schosser, Nathan Brown, Greg Ryan, Patrick Ritchie and Tom Aplin who also kicked four conversions and two penalties.
Grammar were best served by Schosser until his dismissal, Aplin, Ryan, Matthew Emmison and Shepherd but overall it was a bad day for the Rubislaw side and a painful one for north-east rugby.
O’Connor now has the difficult task of picking up the pieces for the challenge of an away game at Musselburgh on Saturday.
🏉 FINAL SCORE 🏉
A high scoring try-fest saw @JedforestRFC take the win today at Rubislaw. Tough blow for Grammar but it was great game on home soil💪#abdnrugby pic.twitter.com/Dd8n00LERr
— Aberdeen Grammar Rugby (@ABDNRugby) September 25, 2021
At Countesswells, Gordonians enjoyed their first victory of their campaign in National League 2 against Kirkcaldy, running out convincing 41-21 winners and, with another home game against Hamilton to come on Saturday, they have a great chance to push into the safety of mid-table.
Club president and forward Matthew Brechin welcomed the comprehensive win and said: “We played well but we left a few tries out there.
“Our rugby was thoughtful and focussed. Captain Danny Usugo lead the way with two fine tries, while I managed to get one of my own. It’s upwards and onwards for us now.”
The three other tries were attributed to Callum Stephen (2) and Finlay Lennox. Alex Fraser kicked four conversions and a penalty.
