The hardy souls who came to support the teams on an inclement day at Greenlaw were served up a great match.
Defying the elements and a very greasy pitch, both sides hammered away at each other for the full match and the relieved response of the Stewartry coaches on the final whistle showed just how close it had been.
Playing against the elements in the first half, Stewartry got off to a flying start. Scrum dominance and some powerful tackling meant Stewartry had a lot of ball and tried to play their usual game of going wide.
Unfortunately, the ball was so slippery, neither side managed to keep hold of it and so Stewartry could not capitalise on this early dominance.
By the time half-time came, Cartha had got themselves into the match, utilising their pick and go game which was ideally suited to the conditions.
Stewartry fronted up in defence and so, despite all the huff and puff, the score was 0-0 at the interval.
The second half saw almost exactly the same pattern of huge effort by both sides being undone by mistakes, repeated. Stewartry finally broke the stalemate with a well worked try down the left.
The lineout had been going better and better for Stewartry with Zac Rawlings dominating the airspace being lifted by Moray Robertson and Arthur Bolland. This time, ball off the top was shifted on by Fraser Davies and Angus Bryson to Preston Carnochan who switched the line of attack back to the blind side and outpaced the defence from 40m out. Fraser slotted the conversion from wide out, with a little help from the post.
The final whistle blew on two teams who, soaking and cold, had given their all.
