The older and heavier Millbrae pack were able to dominate the tight forward exchanges, in what was a sticky but certainly not unplayable surface, denying Paisley any decent running opportunity's not that the Paisley backs looked too interested in taking them when they did come.

With Paisley eventually building some pressure on the Millbrae line it seemed inevitable that a score would soon come, alas it was for Millbrae, as the forwards lost control of the ball and the back three misfielded the clearance kick. Attacking pressure had suddenly become frantic defence, but the experienced Millbrae forwards were not going to let the opportunity slip and duly scored in the corner.

David Dodd immediately got Paisley back up the park and into attacking position with an athletic take on the Paisley restart. Once again though Paisley failed to retain enough possesion to make any inroads on the Millbrae line and once again Millbrae were able to clear their lines. This time it was Full Back Gavin Newlands, whose attempt at an overly clever chip kick, was charged down allowing Millbrae to get back up the park for their second score of the half.

At 12-0 down, the feeling was still that Paisley would get enough opportunity to get back into the match and just before half-time the backline finally clicked into gear, with man of the match Mark Alexander, showing just how dangerous a runner he can be when given time and space on the ball, waltzing over for a score under the posts, converted by Steve Jermey.

Paisley were to enjoy a better second half and a David Dodds score powerfully taken through quickly recycled ruck ball gave Paisley the lead 14-12. Paisley then enjoyed a decent period of sustained pressure, without ever really looking like they would score again, although the same could be said for Millbrae, whose occasional forrays up the park only ever got to within kicking distance, which the strong wind made difficult.

Millbrae were reduced to 14 men for 10 minutes when one of their forwards was sin-binned for rucking near the head of a prone Paisley player. It is a feature of modern rugby at the higher levels that this sort of rucking has been almost entirely eradicated and yet with an older Millbrae side, old habits seemed to die hard, with more than one Paisley player receiving a kick to the head, it is to be hoped that the referees will become less tolerant of such behaviour. Alas for Iain Livingstone and Paisley, Saturday's referee had a less tolerant approach to Industrial language than foul play and whilst 'Chocky' voiced his angry concerns that yet another Paisley player had been kicked on the head, the ref felt that swearing was the more serious of the 2 misdemenours, immediately red carding the Paisley lock and awarding the penalty to Millbrae, from a situation that Paisley had already won the ball from. To rub salt into the wounds Millbrae converted the penalty to take the lead 15-14, which with a 1 man advantage they were able to comfortably retain for the rest of the game.

Paisley coach Jim MacFarlane was inconsolable after the game, observing that had Chocky responded with violence to the provocation, then it might have been worthy of a red, but following the ref's form would have probably been a yellow. To be red-carded for making his protestation to the ref in the vernacular is perverse beyond belief.

Praise is due to the Millbrae player who had the good grace to apologise to Chocky for his part in the affair and to make representations on his behalf to the referee.