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Driving rain, freezing temperatures and a
crowd which just creeped into double figures is hardly the
best setting for a game of rugby, but that mattered not to
Boroughmuir as they put forth an heroic defensive
performance in the second half to hold out for a win,
despite finishing the match with only thirteen men on the
field.
Numbers were clearly scarce for ’Muir, and
they looked like a team put together at the last minute as
the game began, the visitors starting much brighter with a
series of attacks. As was to happen all day, however,
Lasswade were let down by a seeming inability to hold onto
the ball for more than three or four phases.
After surviving Lasswade’s early pressure,
Boroughmuir began to find their feet, and on eight minutes,
fly-half David Reekie took a pass from Herman Ihmig and
found his way over the line only to have the ball ripped
from his grasp as he tried to touch down.
The home side were definitely in the
ascendancy though, and Steve Gilroy broke up the left wing,
only for the ball to be knocked forward as it was moved
infield. And it was only moments later that ’Muir suffered
their first injury blow, losing Grant Rutherford, with
Johnny Ruddick having to move out and take his place on the
wing and Ally Hay coming on at flanker.
The hosts again came close to grabbing the
opening score when Ihmig burst through two tackles and found
fellow centre James White in support. White took the ball up
to the Lasswade twenty-two before offloading, but as Ally
Hay then tried to find Ruddick, the makeshift winger was
unable to hold onto the ball and the chance passed by.
There was no doubt that a try was in the
offing, and it duly arrived in the twenty-first minute, Ally
Hay crashing over from the back of a scrum. After Mark
“Goose” Greene had shown excellent pace, the like of which
had never been seen from him before, to claim a ball that
had been knocked on by the Lasswade winger, Andy Knight was
held up over the line, and Hay powered his way between
fly-half and flanker to score from the resultant scrum.
Reekie’s conversion attempt was dragged agonisingly across
the face of the posts.
From the kick-off, however, ’Muir had a
second try in the bag. Ihmig, Fish and White made the
initial breaks to get over the halfway line, and Gilroy then
raced deep into the twenty-two before being stopped in his
tracks by the visiting full-back. Support arrived quickly
and once Dougie Scott had straightened the line, there was
space aplenty for Knight to feed Ruddick, who dived over
beside the posts for a try which Reekie converted.
From this point, Boroughmuir had to fight
with fourteen men, Freddie Lait retiring injured from the
front row, meaning the ever-green Colin Telford had to move
up from the number eight position at which he had been
plying his trade.
Andy Knight showed there was still plenty in
the tank as he raced up the left wing after ’Muir turned
over a Lasswade line-out. Unfortunately the support couldn’t
keep up and the ball again went to ground to be turned over.
As the half wore on, the visitors were
fighting their way back into the game, scoring a try with
six minutes remaining before the interval. After a series of
missed tackles from the home side, Lasswade were left with a
two-on-one on the left wing against Andy Clark, and the lock
forward could do nothing to stop the visitors’ outside
centre crashing over the line. Without a kicking tee for the
conversion, Lasswade were forced into a drop goal, but the
attempt never entered the twenty-two as it spiralled across
the pitch.
’Muir couldn’t raise their game though, and
two minutes into injury time at the end of the half,
Lasswade cut the gap even further, with what actually turned
out to be the final points of the game. After Gilroy had
been turned over inside his own twenty-two, the ball was
spun back inside and the visitors’ inside centre found space
to score beside the posts, though another attempted drop
goal conversion missed its intended target, leaving ’Muir in
the lead.
Boroughmuir began the second period the
brighter of the two, but they failed to make anything of
their territorial dominance, and were struggling to retain
possession through the line-out. Ultimately, though, the
inevitable happened, and despite some brief interludes off
attacking play, the majority of which came through centres
Ihmig and White, Lasswade’s extra man started to make a
difference, and they spent long periods camped in the ’Muir
twenty-two.
With less than ten minutes to go, ’Muir went
a further man down as second row Rod Hutchison took a blow
to the face and couldn’t continue, but the defensive effort
remained resolute. Just as the home side couldn’t break out
of defence, neither could the visitors force their way over
the line; they either met a solid wall of green and blue or
they fumbled the ball forward.
The referee’s final whistle brought a sense
of relief to the home side, but also a feeling of a job well
done. With a tough home game for the 2nds against Heriot’s
next week, match practice was vitally important and the
impressive defence will, no doubt, have pleased the coaches.
Boroughmuir: James Fish; Greg
Rutherford, James White, Herman Ihmig, Steve Gilroy; David
Reekie, Andy Knight; Freddie Lait, Douglas Scott, Gavin
Hume; Rod Hutchison, Andy Clark; Mark Greene, Colin Telford,
Johhny Ruddick - Sub used: Ally Hay
Simon Furnivall |
