This season has seen Aberdeen Grammar face challenges they would never have dreamt of dealing with before.
Covid-19 issues, an injury crisis and a battered squad struggling for form. The campaign has never really got going and the outlook, as it stands, is not good.
Their win over Glasgow Hawks at the end of November was emphatic. It snapped a run of 10 straight Premiership defeats and in the process, restored some belief they could get out of this predicament.
But defeat against Jed Forest, one of the teams which could have been dragged into the relegation scrap, has left the Rubislaw side with a mountain to climb.
Head coach Ali O’Connor has remained steadfast in his belief that Grammar could stay up. He drew on the experience of winning their last four games of his first season in charge to stay up, as an example of what could still be achieved.
Having someone at the helm who remains level-headed when things appear to be spinning out of control is hugely important. The issues he has had to overcome this season would have tested any coach.
They have had two games postponed due to Covid outbreaks at the club and therefore had to rearrange fixtures further down the line. One of them was their opening game of the season against Edinburgh Accies, a far from ideal scenario after a disrupted pre-season.
Then there has been the injury situation, which has rumbled on from week-to-week as the absentee list grew.
At one stage there was more than 20 players unavailable for selection, which for a part-time club produces a near-insurmountable situation. That is an entire match-day squad which found itself nursing injuries.
Every week, there would be fresh names added to the list. Grammar staff felt it was owing to the lack of competitive rugby over the previous 18 months, where the entire Scottish setup had effectively been on shutdown to the pandemic.
Bodies were taking a while to get used to the intensity, the hits, the demands of playing rugby again after more than a year off. Injuries had been frequent throughout the Premiership but it seemed Grammar were getting the rough end of the stick.
The hope was always to get some of these players back soon enough to make a difference, while the season was still alive. Dates in the calendar were earmarked for potential returnees and when they could turn a corner.
It took until the visit of Hawks for it to happen. A 38-13 win was decisive and gave Rubislaw the lift it badly needed, after enduring its own tale of woe for the majority of the season.
They now have five games to save themselves with a deficit of 12 points to overhaul. They start 2022 with Musselburgh at home and every game now becomes a must-win. They still have to face Currie and Hawick – two of the Premiership’s top three – so survival is by no means an easy task.
Grammar’s hopes of survival may be slim but while it is still mathematically possible for them to stay up, the towel will not be thrown in.
