Sep
09
Boroughmuir Bears 19 - Edinburgh Accies U-20’s 27
The Boroughmuir Bears stepped up their league preparations with a friendly against another local rival, this time in the shape of Edinburgh Accies Under-20’s. It wasn’t quite an Accies XV, more an XIV, as the Raeburn outfit struggled to field a full pack, even resorting to borrowing one of the Bears new Irish additions Eanna O’Fatherted.
The Bears had a larger squad for coach, Kevin Robertson to choose from, although still missing a hooker for which captain Rod Hutchison filled the position admirably on the day. There was a first ever start for Jo’Burg born lock Graeme Rex and a return to the starting side for the vicious vegetarian Jo Whitworth at flanker. In the backs, Aaron Maguire returned to inside centre after sustaining a pinky injury during pre-season training.
The game started off at a frantic pace, with both sides struggling to retain possession for more than a few phases. Neil Kemp carried on his good form from last week with ball in hand and was able to gain some good yards for the Bears. The first try came from veteran prop Billy Blythe, who rampaged to the line after taking an inside pass from stand-off Chris Evans on the Accies twenty-two. Blythe carried over two or perhaps three defenders to touch down. Alas, this exertion was to be the last of the game for Billy who retired to the side line for a lie down and a fag, his job for the day done! Evans added the conversion.
After this bright start the Bears were not able to build on this momentum and Accies became more dominant as the half wore on. They had a handy back-line with the pick of their players being ex-Bears player of the season, Alec “Tarquin” Cowan. Outside-centre Cowan scored the equalising try for Accies and the visitors soon added another score to take the lead.
The Bears came back towards the end of the first half. They were spurred on by replacement Justin Tito, who was stepping out for his first game in over a year due to a serious knee injury. Tito, usually a number 8, lined up in the pivotal scrum-half position due to the early retirement of Jimmy Lynch, who ironically had damaged his knee.
As the match reporter can testify, Tito is from the Mike Phillips school of number 9’s, rather than Greig Laidlaw! He looked for the gaps around the breakdown to gain yards with ball in hand and this ploy was no less effective. The Bears were camped on the Accies try line for some time, before the referee had enough of their foul play and gifted up and coming Bears forward Blair Calder with a try, even though he appeared to be dragged over the line and held up by an Accies forward.
The match was evenly poised at half-time but coach Kev let his players know that there was plenty to work on in both attack and defence. Ball retention had been poor, leading to some cheap turnovers by Accies and also the first up tackling had been fairly weak as well across the team.
With the wind behind them in the second-half, Accies came out strong and Cowan was soon on the score sheet again for them with a long range try after some ropey defence by the Bears. A horrible charged-down kick from the boot of Evans was capitalised on and the visitors extended their lead further with another try.
For most of the second half, it was forgetful stuff for the Bears as they struggled to keep possession, which stunted any attacking opportunities. However, there were some notable performances from the likes of replacement forward Andrew Hood who is a useful ball carrier and lock Rex looks like a good line-out option.
After Accies scored their fifth and final try, the Bears put together their best phases of play but looked to be lacking the killer instinct as a number players went close but were thwarted by good defence. However, finally the Bears were rewarded with a try under the posts in the dying seconds of the match. Now, in a ploy to get players to pay their subs, the Bears will only mention try scorers who have paid their membership fee. Therefore, the final Bears try scorer will remain nameless but a clue to who it was is this: Accies are one of the few Edinburgh clubs that this player has not played for in his short career! Well done to this player and the club look forward to receiving his subs this week.
The final score was Bears 19, Accies 27.
Despite some sloppy defence and poor ball retention, the Bears performed better than the previous week and put together some good phases at times against Accies. There is still a lot to work on at training but time is on the Bears side ahead of that first league match against Haddington in two weeks. Next week the Bears face even closer local rivals Watsonians and will undoubtedly be up for this match.
Men of the match: Justin Tito (Bears) “Tarquin” Cowan (Accies)
1. Billy Blythe, 2. Rod Hutchison (Capt.), 3. Charles Campbell, 4. Graeme Rex, 5. Blair Calder, 6. Neil Kemp, 7. Joe Whitworth, 8. n/a, 9. Jimmy Lynch, 10. Chris Evans, 11. Chris O’Neill, 12. Aaron Maguire, 13. Chris Whitelock, 14. Roy Stewart, 15. Lee McDonald
Replacements: Justin Tito, Andrew Hood
