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They huffed and puffed all day long, but it took until deep
into second half injury time for Boroughmuir to blow GHA’s
house down. In a game that they should have won more
comfortably – and perhaps would have had they claimed their
fourth try when they hammered at the hosts’ line mid way
through the second half – they still managed to claim all
five points on offer and stretched their lead at the top of
the league to nine.
The two teams approached their scoring in entirely different
manners, ’Muir with their eyes on the try line at all times,
shunning penalty attempts on more than one occasion, whilst
GHA relied on the golden boot of fly-half James Noonan and
rarely threatened to score a five-pointer. It looked likely
in the closing minutes that it would be the home side who
prevailed, trailing only by a point and in possession of the
ball they worked ceaselessly to try and get Noonan into drop
goal or penalty range, but eventually the ball was lost and
’Muir romped down the pitch, rubbing salt in Glasgow wounds
by snatching the fourth try.
GHA had been the quicker of the two sides out of the blocks,
their tactics clear as they sent three kicks booming high
into the Glasgow sky in the first five minutes. The home
side had the first sight of the line as well, a Noonan kick
half charged down and falling into GHA hands, but as they
crossed the twenty-two, Angus Martyn held strong in defence
and drove the attackers into touch.
From the lineout, however, GHA had their first points. They
stole the ball and moved it into midfield where ’Muir were
caught offside in front of the posts and Noonan needed no
second invitation to open the scoring.
Boroughmuir were struggling to gain any sort of foothold in
the game, whenever they managed to string a few phases of
possession together they would soon cough up the ball to a
home pack that was clearly up for the game.
Around the quarter hour mark the game began to change in
’Muir’s favour as they won two lineouts on the left and came
mighty close to claiming the opening try. A move was worked
between Graeme McCallum and Sean Crombie which ended with
McCallum stopped just short, and soon after a rolling maul
again just failed to cross the line with Martyn in
possession of the ball.
The visitors needed points on the board as they had plenty
of pressure in the GHA twenty-two. The home defence held out
as long as it could, but on sixteen minutes they could do no
more as Rory Couper continued his scoring form from last
week with a good finish. From a lineout on the right,
’Muir’s forwards picked and drove twice before Calum Cusiter
whipped it out into the backs. Stephen Ruddick injected pace
into the line and ducked past two tackles before slipping a
pass to Couper who crossed the line for the score.
The missed conversion by Elgan O’Donnell meant GHA stayed
only two points down, and within just a few minutes they
were back in front as Olly Brown was penalised for breaking
off a scrum early and the metronomic Noonan goaled the
penalty with ease.
The game was finely in the balance with ’Muir controlling
much of the possession but unable to put that pressure on
the scoreboard thanks to a continuing stream of mistakes.
They were still the more likely to cross the line though,
and proved that with an Olly Brown try on twenty-five
minutes. After Cusiter’s grubber kick had been knocked into
touch by full back Chris Binnie, ’Muir won the line and put
together a textbook catch and drive move which ended with
Brown touching down and O’Donnell adding the conversion.
The Boroughmuir of the past few weeks may have made the six
point advantage they now held pay, but this week they
continued to make things hard for themselves. Although their
defence was superb the ’Muir discipline cracked again to
give Noonan a third penalty, and when he added a snap drop
goal the scores were level going into half-time.
Having lost their lead, there was a sense that ’Muir needed
a good start to the second half, and that was exactly what
they got as Martyn scored his now customary try. Ruddick
broke down the right, ducking inside two tackles and when
GHA were penalised fifteen metres infield, Martyn took a
quick tap penalty and powered his way through three tacklers
to touch down on the line. O’Donnell added the extra two,
taking his tally to 73 points for the season.
There were two players in particular coming to the fore for
’Muir as they tried to turn the screw on their opponents.
Cam Ward, on as a substitute in the front row, was putting
in some bullocking runs that became trademark last season
whilst Olly Brown was superb in marshalling a stellar
defensive effort.
A fourth try would have killed the game for the visitors,
and Couper very nearly had it when he took a pass from Euan
Matheson and set off for the left corner, only for a
desperate Rory Watson to knock him into touch in goal.
Their failure to net that bonus point try gave GHA some
hope, and Noonan narrowed the gap with another Noonan
penalty arrowed between the posts. Ward then blotted his
copy book for the day when he was yellow-carded for a
cynical offence at the ruck in his own twenty-two. Noonan
made him pay further by stroking over the penalty to reduce
the gap to only a single point and give the crowd something
to shout about.
Debutant Ed Mills had a chance to send ’Muir further ahead,
he injected pace into the backline and looked clear for the
score, but at the crucial moment he threw a long pass
towards Couper which didn’t go to hand and GHA cleared the
ball upfield.
All the home side were interested in doing was getting
Noonan into range for another three points, trying to pray
on a Boroughmuir discipline which finally held up when it
needed to. It was something of rough justice to Noonan that
he was the one to spill the ball from which ’Muir raced to
their fourth try, Cusiter eventually darting round the edge
of a ruck to touch down on the line, and it was little
consolation that O’Donnell’s missed conversion meant they at
least claimed a bonus point.
It is now eight consecutive wins for Boroughmuir at the
start of the Scottish Hydro Electric Premiership season, and
coupled with Hawick’s defeat of Melrose at Mansfield Park
puts them nine points clear at the top. This was perhaps the
least perfect of those eight wins, but it is often said that
these are the most important victories in a successful
season. However we must not get ahead of ourselves, fourteen
games remain to be played and anything can yet happen, but
’Muir have got themselves into a position that any other
side would love to be in.
Boroughmuir: Stephen Ruddick;
Tom Bury, Elgan O'Donnell, Andy Hadden, Rory Couper;
Greg Cottrell, Calum Cusiter; Nigel Drapper, Sean Crombie,
Freddie Lait; Euan Matheson, Graeme McCallum; Olly Brown, Ben Fisher,
Angus Martyn. Subs Used Cam Ward, Ed Mills Not Used: Davie
Cunningham, Stuart Waddell, Robert Cairns |
