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Boroughmuir
this evening can look down on the Scottish Hydro Electric
Premiership from a lofty position after their crushing win
over Stirling County , coupled with Watsonians defeat of
Currie, saw the Meggetland side rise to the top of the table
for the first time this season. Things hadn’t looked so
simple at the interval as ’Muir lead only 6-10 and had seen
attacking positions pass them by, but a second half try
count of six to one in favour of the Edinburgh side saw them
romp home with a five point win.
Playing the
first half into the wind, Boroughmuir began brightly and had
a try on the board inside three minutes. Ben Fisher broke
well up the left wing and Malcolm Clapperton chipped ahead
to win good field position when Stirling wing Steve McDonald
failed to hold onto the ball. From the scrum, fly-half Matt
Cannon had a dart at the line before Fisher powered his way
over from eight yards. Elgan O’Donnell added the conversion
in what would be a highly accurate day for the Kiwi centre.
Stirling had given Currie a serious run for their money last week in
a determined forward effort, and so were not a side to be
taken lightly, particularly on their home patch. They showed
just why from the restart, lock Bruce MacFarlane and Number
8 Justin Matheson marshalling the pack very well in a series
of attacks at the ’Muir line. The eventually won a penalty,
which centre Jonathan Hope struck between the uprights.
Hope missed
an attempt to reduce the gap to a single point in the
seventeenth minute when he pushed a penalty wide of the
posts after Stephen Ruddick had been penalised for holding
onto the ball in the tackle. Hope was given a chance to
redeem himself when ’Muir scrum half Greg Cottrell was
harshly yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on, and this
time the Stirling centre made no mistake with his penalty
effort.
Boroughmuir
were still the better side, and they didn’t let their
numerical disadvantage change that. With Andy Knight
replacing Rob Cairns for the duration of the sin-binning,
and Joni Hare on for Olly Brown after the flanker took a
knock, they began to get themselves on the front foot once
more. However, they continued with their early season trend
of making too many errors as at least three potential
scoring positions were thrown away.
Those
missed chances very nearly came back to bite them quickly,
Graham Calder making a nuisance of himself at a Boroughmuir
scrum deep in the Stirling half. The scrum half managed to
hack the ball forward for Allan Robertson to chase, and only
a very late intervention by Ruddick and Clapperton saw the
home full back held up over the Boroughmuir try line.
’Muir were
able to resist the forward barrage which Stirling threw at
them in a desperate attempt to score the try, bodies were
put on the line in a superb defensive effort from the
visitors. And when they finally emerged with the ball and
broke upfield, they won a penalty inside the Stirling
twenty-two which O’Donnell slotted between the posts five
minutes before the break.
The second
half saw Boroughmuir begin with the same sort of flourish
that they had in the first, and only the referee’s whistle
prevented them from scoring a try almost straight from the
kick-off. After Graeme McCallum took clean line-out ball,
Angus Martyn directed a drive which took them to within a
metre or so of the Stirling line. Freddie Lait picked up and
dived over the line, but the whistle sounded to indicate
that Joni Hare had been caught preventing winger Graham
Lindsay from trying to tackle Lait.
The try did
come soon thereafter, and it was hooker Sean Crombie who
touched down. From wide on the right, Matt Cannon and Rory
Couper moved the ball through the hands, allowing Crombie to
show an excellent turn of pace and strength, going outside
three men and diving to beat Ross Logan in the corner.
O’Donnell added the conversion from wide on the left.
Boroughmuir
needed to start turning the screw with the wind at their
backs, and were given a little let off when Hope pushed
another penalty attempt wide of the sticks. The third try,
however, quickly stuck the knife into the hosts. Starting
when Fergus Pringle stole a line-out just inside the
Boroughmuir twenty-two, the Edinburgh side worked their way
upfield, eventually winning a scrum just ten metres from the
Stirling line. The ball was well recycled through a number
of phases, and when Cannon made a half-break, Angus Martyn
was on his shoulder to take the pass and stroll over the
line. O’Donnell again added the extra two.
If the
third had created the wound, it was the fourth that killed
off any chance Stirling had. After the home forwards had
relentlessly pounded on the ’Muir defence, Pringle, Fisher
and Martyn combined to wrest the ball back into ’Muir’s
possession. Joni Hare carried out of the twenty-two and
Cannon and Clapperton provided the links before Couper
delivered the scoring pass to O’Donnell, the inside centre
unchallenged as he raced in from thirty-five metres. He
converted his own score, and the gap was a more-than-healthy
twenty-five points.
Stirling
were given brief hope when Lindsay intercepted Cannon’s long
pass and ran in from forty metres, before converting the
score himself, but ’Muir soon countered with a fifth score
of their own. Through yet more turnover ball, Crombie burst
up the left wing and found Clapperton in support. Couper
just about managed to keep control of the ball when it got
to him, and he fed Martyn, who went outside and then inside
home fly-half Massey Tuhakaraina and touched down under the
posts. O’Donnell, inevitably, added the conversion.
The game
was coming towards its close, but ’Muir still had the time
to find two more tries. Stirling didn’t want to go down
without a fight and they tried to take the game back to
’Muir, but when Martyn turned ball over in the middle of the
park, Clapperton was found with enough space to dink a
little chip forward. He hacked on again under challenge from
Mark Hunter, and then when he slid down on the ball ten
metres from the line, he pirouetted around Tuhakaraina and
strolled under the posts.
The final
nail in the coffin came in injury time, and it was
substitute Andy Hadden who hammered it in. With Stirling
still throwing the ball around, Nigel Drapper won turnover
ball on the twenty-two, and when it was moved through the
line, Ruddick slipped an inside pass to Hadden, who coasted
over the line. O’Donnell converted both the final tries to
ensure his 100% record for the day remained intact as the
final whistle sounded.
For the
fourth week running, Boroughmuir have won without putting in
the perfect performance. And whilst the first half attacking
performance may have left something to be desired, the
defensive effort that was put in throughout the match should
be commended. Stirling tried countless times to attack round
the fringes and through rolling mauls, but each time they
were repelled, and when they spun the ball into the backs,
they found the midfield defence to be equally impenetrable.
Watsonians will provide a stiff challenge to ’Muir’s
excellent start, but there is no reason why the game cannot
be approached with confidence.
Boroughmuir: Stephen Ruddick;
Robert Cairns, Malcolm Clapperton, Elgan O'Donnell, Rory Couper;
Matt Cannon, Greg Cottrell, Danny Rutterford, Sean Crombie,
Freddie Lait; Fergus Pringle, Graeme McCallum; Olly Brown, Ben Fisher,
Angus Martyn. Subs Used Nigel Drapper, Davie Cunningham.
Joni Hare, Andy Knight, Andy Hadden |
