The Twos were back on league duty on Saturday after
a three-week break. The postponed match against
Biggar at Meggetland was eventually played and
resulted in a win for the Twos by 20 pts to 17pts.
It was a narrow win but we felt we did just edge the
game with a try count of 3-1 in our favour.
Both teams fought hard and most of the first-half
rugby was played by the Twos. Stuart Clark, playing
at stand-off finished off a fine move with a final
break through a couple of tacklers to score our
first try on 11 minutes. Sivvy's conversion attempt
hit a post. Thee minutes later, Biggar scored with
a simple penalty. Two further tries in the half in
the 19th and 28th minutes were scored by Grant
Rutherford who had a fine game on the day. Sivvy
converted the latter.
Biggar picked up another couple of penalty scores to
make the half-time score 17-9 in our favour. We
were playing against a cold wind but perhaps should
have been further ahead on the play. The second
half didn't yield much to talk about from either
side. We were on the wrong end of a number of
decisions which did lift Biggar and they nibbled
away at our lead. They scored with a penalty on 43
minutes and scored their try in the 72nd minute to
tie the scores at 17-all.
The team held together well under the guidance of
Andy Knight, just back from NZ and playing with a
broken toe, and Alan Sievewright, playing after an
absence of six weeks. It was Sivvy who settled the
match with a sweetly struck drop goal in the 77th
minute. It was tight, but the team pulled together
at the end to secure the win.
An interesting tactic employed during the game came
from coach Brian Richardson. He gave Ross Scott a
rest and changed the lineout tactic to shorten the
lineout. Captain Sivvy commented that, "he
certainly did shorten the lineout, there was no
[expletive] over six feet!"
Another concern was highlighted - the number of
gingers in the squad. Now we know some opponents do
check up on such things. Hard to believe but, yes,
there are clubs that scrutinise our team lists for a
number of reasons. I'm not sure the club has a
policy on this and it will be raised at the next
selection meeting. I'm happy that we didn't break
any rules.
And finally, Dougie Scott played blindside and
played very well. From there he wasn't involved in
as many "incidents" as usual but still managed more
than anyone. Dougie is dark-haired.
Well done team!
