in stark contrast to Mackie who sit dead last at the half way stage of the season and looking down the barrel of relegation unless things change soon. However the Mackie squad had been working extremely hard in training and there is a certain fire amongst the players that has been sadly lacking so far this season. With many of the early season injury worries behind them it was perhaps the strongest squad Mackie have put out all year.

Mackie were playing up the slope and started at a frantic pace and to be honest Gordonians never really got a chance to get going. Two significant early injuries for the home side with big second row going off with a stinger to the shoulder and their stand off struggling from early on. Early penalty for Mackie by Reddish which was quickly followed by a slick backs move try by R Atkins which was converted by Reddish.

Mackie forwards dominated for the rest of the half but Gordonians defended well until the Mackie stand off A Atkins bundled over for an uncoverted score. Looked like that would be it until H/T but Gordonians managed to get a player sin-binned right on half time and Mackie took full advantage with Reddish kicking the 3pts for an 0-18 lead at the turn.

At half time the weather turned plain nasty sleet and snow coming in horizontaly from the East favouring the home side. An early interception try by the Gordonians full back narrowed the gap but the Mackie pack then took over proceedings to destroy an hopes of a comeback.

Mackie Captain Craig Thomson scored a well worked try from a lineout and maul from 8m out. Reddish nailing the conversion from the touchline into the swirling hail storm.

Mackie went hunting for the bonus point and were rewarded when whilst a man down to the sin-bin they rumbled up from their own 22 to the Gordonians 22, then the 7 man pack upset a Gordonians attacking scrum to regain possession. With a resultant scrum, blind side flanker Steve Akauola pounced a loose ball to send the soaked Mackie fans into raptures in gaining a bonus point for 4 tries.

Final score 5-32 (not what the SRU website says)

Great all round display by Mackie which was reminisent of some of last seasons gritty wins. A long way from being out of the dangerzone but no doubt the guys believe they have their destiny in their own hands and if they play like that for the rest of the season then it could get tasty down the bottom of the table.