The
Bears good travelling support was supplemented by players
from the cancelled Boroughmuir 4ths match, plus a guest
appearance of Victor & Jack who watched from the comfort of
their deck chairs. This was a match which was always going
to be a more sterner measure of the progress the Bears have
made over the course of the season. The Bears played down
hill in the first half and it was obvious from the start
that Inverleith’s game plan was to keep the ball in the
forwards. A knock on from the kick off gave Inverleith a
scrum in the Bears half which they ran out wide, which was
stopped by a crunching covering tackle from Mark Place 10
metres from the Bears line, game on. In this opening period
the busiest person was the ball retriever from the Ferry
Road with both sides kicking to touch. The stale mate was
broken in 8 minutes when Mark Ross broke tackles to score
out wide on the left, conversion was missed.
We
didn’t have to wait to long for the next score, on 15
minutes Inverleith tried to run the ball from their own 22
and with our cover defence looking a bit ragged a tackle
from Jason Russell spilt the ball from the Inverleith player
which Stuart Clark picked up and jinked in to score, this
time successfully converted by Mark Ross. An injury to Mark
Place brought on Jordan Hepburn. While Inverleith stuck to
their game plan of keeping the ball in their forwards, and
with the referee having difficulty policing the offside
rule, the game became a bit scrappy and tempers were
stretched.
When
they did move the ball along the line, they never really
threatened and The Bears defence was well organised. The
Bears went through a period of good attacking moves spoilt
through lack of control or a knock on at the crucial moment.
Play was lit up towards the end of the first half when a
Derek Murray clearance kick down field resulted in winning
the ball from a maul which was passed through the hands to
Will Fraser on the left wing. From 30 metres out he broke a
couple of tackles and managed to keep in play avoiding the
touch line to finish off the move in the corner, conversion
was missed. Whistle went for half time .
The
opening period in the second half was marred with mistakes ,
that last pass going astray, the wrong option being taken,
just generally too frantic, trying to force the game when it
wasn’t necessary. Inverleith were using the slope and the
wind to take play down into the Bears half. With the referee
advising the two Captains at the break about infringes at
the break down it was not surprising when Inverleith had a
player sin binned on 17 minutes. The fourth try came on 18
minutes when the ball went through the hands and an
aggressive run in from 15 metres from Jordan Hepburn secured
the bonus point. Conversion missed.
The
final score came on 27 minutes when after some good work
from Donald Gray in securing the ball at the line out and
forward drive the ball came out to Derek Murray who ran in
from 25 metres to score under the posts, converted by Mark
Ross. There were further periods of good play, where the
ball was moved through the hands from one side then back to
the other only for the final pass to go astray. Inverleith
closed the game with a period of pressure in our half
looking to try and get on the score board, but there was no
way through the Bears defence.
With the win and the
bonus point and Dalkeith failing to get a bonus point The
Bears are now top of the league on points difference.
