CLANSMEN MAUL THE TIGERS

Three Touchdowns from Jeff Bryan helped reigning British College Champions Stirling Clansmen continue their winning streak against Glasgow Tigers with a convincing 32-12 victory at Glasgow’s Garscube Sports Centre.

The Tigers were hoping to kick off their get their new campaign off with their first win over the Clansmen in almost three years.

And they got off to the perfect start thanks to first quarter touchdowns from David Grant and Matt McCusker.

But the reigning British Champions hit back in style with five unanswered runs into the endzone to pull of a moral boosting win over the Tigers, making it two wins out of two for the season.

The Clansmen came into the game with the advantage of a convincing season opening victory over Newcastle Raiders under their belts.

But after punting the ball away on their opening drive deep into Clansmen territory, the Tigers make the first breakthrough, when the Clansmen coughed up possession on their goal line with Grant diving on the loose ball for the opening touchdown.

The Tigers stepped up the pace and were soon threatening the Stirling endzone when a Quarterback sneak from Matt McCusker stretched the Glasgow side’s lead to 12 points.

But the home side’s joy was short lived at t he end of the first quarter on the resulting kick off, when Jeff Byran took advantage of some excellent blocking to return the ball back up field for an impressive score, which along with a 2 point conversion from Matt Westwater reduced the deficit to four points.

The Tigers soon suffered another setback when McCusker was picked off by Stephen McLaughlin at the Clansmen 15 yards line.

However a tough stand from the home defense gave the Tigers forced the Clansmen to punt the ball away, giving the home side a chance to sneak another six points before the break.

But after an impressive punt return from Kenny McPhail, they blew the momentum, when McLaughlin pulled in a second interception, leaving the visitors to run down the final seconds of the half.

Things looked promising for the Tigers early in the second half after another impressive punt return from McPhail into the Clansmen’s half, but it was brought back 15 yards following a personal foul penalty.

The Tigers failed to find second gear and were forced to punt the ball away again, which resulted in another special teams breakdown, when Byran found a gap down the side to return his second touchdown of the day and put the visitors in front for the first time

All of the impressive work from the Tigers at the start of the game would soon count for nothing on their next drive, when Linebacker, Andreas Sommerset, stripped the ball off Running Back, Henry Ainsley, taking the ball back half the length of field to give the Clansmen a 20-12 lead.

The Tigers were now running out of ideas and could not find their way through the tough Stirling defensive wall.

Then disaster struck inside the two minute warning, when Byran wrapped the game up, when he ran home his touchdown hat trick.

As the Tigers were trying to bring some respectability to the scoreline, disaster struck again, when McLaughlin grabbed his third interception and returned the ball just short of the Glasgow endzone.

Then a few minutes later, the visitors showed that they had plenty left in the tank when McKenzie powered his way through for six more points to clinch another impressive victory for the Clansmen and some early season headaches for the Tigers.