Arbroath RFC were on the road again, taking a strong squad down to Alloa to contest a Scottish Rugby Midlands Division 2 fixture. The opening skirmishes were closely contested with Alloa quickly realising it was not going to be an easy afternoon. From the outset the scrums were ferocious and the breakdown area was uncompromising.

Alloa made an early breakthrough when they converted a penalty and scored an unconverted try to go 8-0 up. Arbroath fired straight back in determined fashion, buzz-bomb McRimmon chased down the restart superbly to force the error from the Alloa fullback. From the resultant scrum Arbroath moved through several phases forcing Alloa into conceding a penalty which Buckley converted to make it 8 – 3.

Alloa were still looking the more threatening with ball in hand, Neish, Olliver and Crowe were working like trojans in the loose when the Arbroath defence made a stand on their own try line to prevent a score. The pressure was too much though and Alloa slotted two penalties in quick succession to make the half time score 14 – 3.

Despite the halftime deficit, Arbroath still felt they could take something from the match. The Fijian debutants Mo Bulaveiloti and Kami Kamica were looking dangerous with ball in hand but Alloa were just about able to contain them. The physicality of the game was beginning to take its toll on the players, Crowe had to leave the field after being stunned in the contact area and McRimmon succumbed to a shoulder injury. Re-shuffling the pack, McIntosh and Cull entered the fray. Alloa extended their lead with another penalty to make it 17 – 3.

Now firmly on the back foot it was all hands to the pump in defence for Arbroath. Skivington was his usual determined self, making tackle after tackle. However the pressure was again too much and Alloa's pack barelled over from short range to make the score 24 – 3.

Much to their credit, Arbroath kept plugging away looking for a consolation score. A good passage of play saw Hendry fire the ball out to Buckley who released the backline. The ball made its way down the line to Johnston who made inroads before offloading to Buckley who had looped around. The Alloa defence scrambled well and the promising move petered out.

With 5 minutes to go Arbroath were pinned back on their own line. Stout defence was holding out the home side, when the turnover was secured Arbroath ambitiously tried to run the ball out of defence from their own in goal area. A mixup saw the ball spilled though and Alloa capitalised to score an opportunist try with the last play of the game to make the final score 31 – 3.

Team : Smith © , Spink, Olliver, Breach, Neish, McIntyre, McRimmon, Bulaveiloti, Crowe, Buckley, Kamica, Hendry, Williams, Johnston, Skivington, Cull, McIntosh, Owen, Burns