On
Friday there was no wind and today, Sunday, there is no
wind but there was a strong one blowing right down pitch
2 at Meggetland yesterday. Playing in similar
conditions to last week, the Twos continued their
winning run with a comfortable win over Dundee HSFP by
35 pts to 7 pts thus overturning the earlier season
loss. This week the Twos played against the wind in the
first half yet turned at half-time with a comfortable
lead of 21 pts to 0 which must have sickened our
visitors.
Dundee didn't use the wind as much as they might have
and play did ebb and flow in the first quarter. The
first score came after 27 minutes with a fine sweeping
move up and across the field finished off in fine style
under the posts by Joni Hare and converted by Graeme
Blackhall. Strangely, all tries were touched down
between the posts. Shortly after scoring, Joni had to
leave the game with a cut above the eye which needed
treatment at A&E. Boroughmuir were very much in control
in this phase of the match and extended their lead on
the 35th minute with a touch of class from stand-off
Derek Murray. After repeated attempts to cross the
Dundee line, Derek, faced with a wall of defenders some
10 metres out from the posts, fashioned a delightful and
skillful chip over the defence and gathered to dive
between the sticks. Graeme converted.
The
onslaught continued from the kick-off and some mazy
running from Johnny McGaughey took him under the posts
once more on the 37th minute. Graeme converted to give
us a very comfortable lead at half-time and remarkable
too, given the strong wind against. The side had five
changes in the backs and one in the forwards and some of
these missing backs are our main strike runners.
However those who came in were very much at home. We
are lucky to have pool players such as Jason Russell,
Sean Reddox, Graeme Blackhall, Derek Murray, Scott
Richards and Kevin Brown who were much to the fore in
this match.
The
back row were one of our strengths as usual and we
welcomed the experience and ability of Kevin there
yesterday. However, there were two key areas were we
were very strong on the day. The front row were immense
and were our main ball carriers. Andy Maclean was
outstanding but maybe not man of the match since the
other area were we were strong was at half-back. Derek
Murray and Scott Richards were stand-outs showing all
the skills and fight to control the game working from a
solid base provided by a dominant pack.
In
the second half, we delivered the real sickening blow to
Dundee. It's always important to score first on the
turnaround and it took just two minutes to see Danny
Rutterford break from a ruck and he burst through to a
comfortable score under the posts easily outwitting the
Dundee winger to score the try, again converted by
Graeme to take us out to a 28-0 lead. Then we had
another one of those spells were we hardly saw the ball
for most of the rest of the half.
During this time Dundee played a bit of rugby and were
looking not a bad side but our defence held firm on a
number of occasions. Indeed, Dundee crossed our line
three times but were held up each time, a hazard of the
pick and drive tactic. Against the run of play, we
scored another try. The move started with Scott on about
half way as he broke blind from a scrum and was there to
support the move through a number of hands and run round
to the posts accompanied by four or five team mates
ready to celebrate the try on 74 minutes. The
conversion was added and we then had to withstand
another period of pressure and, in stoppage time,
Dundee scored at our posts with something of a long
range effort from a Dundee lock forward.
It is
disappointing to let in a score that late but Dundee
probably deserved the points. It was a good win but we
must again worry about losing control of the ball for
such lengthy periods in the second half. Having said
that we did outscore Dundee by two tries to one despite
their possession advantage.
