Sep
18
Boroughmuir Bears 33 – Watsonians 3rd XV 43
The Boroughmuir Bears faced Watsonians 3rd’s in their last pre-season fixture, in what was billed by the Bears twitter feed as “El Clasico!”. Indeed, a feast of running rugby was served up for the small but vocal fans of both sides, which would rival any Barcelona versus Real Madrid match! Unfortunately, the Bears were unable to hold onto a narrow half-time lead and were eventually over powered by Watsonians team that contained many experienced players who have played at a higher level.
For the first time this season, the Bears were able to play a full fifteen aside match but again the lack of front rowers for the home side meant that the scrums were uncontested. This came as a welcome relief to the referee, who didn’t fancy enforcing the new scrum rules in only his second game with whistle in hand. The Bears only had five forwards to call upon but had plenty of backs, meaning that centre Andy Hood started at prop and wingers Chris O’Neill and Greg Alexander played blindside and openside respectively.
The Bears started the match slowly and soon found themselves two tries behind, as ‘sonians came firing out of their blocks. However, the Bears hit back and pressure from a line-out forced the ‘sonians stand-off to fumble the ball behind his own try-line, which the lightning quick number 7 Alexander pounced on to score. The try was converted by stand-off Chris Evans.
Midway through the second half, the Bears took the lead with a fine try from Calum Brockie. The Bears full-back fielded a wayward clearance kick and set-off from the half-way line. He linked up well with left wing Chris Whitelock, who sped through a gaping hole in the ‘sonians midfield before drawing the full-back to put the supporting Brockie in for the try. The try was again converted by Evans.
With their shaky start behind them, the Bears grew with confidence and scored a third try with ten minutes remaining of the half. Replacement centre Ewan Gaskell finished off some good handling from the midfield backs and used his strength to shrug off a tackle to dive in for the score. The try was converted.
The visitors hit back with a third try of their own but as this went unconverted, the Bears held the lead at half-time 21-19.
Although some of the tackling had been weak in patches, the first half performance in defence and particularly attack had been infinitely better than the previous two matches. Coach Kevin Robertson was impressed with the first forty minutes and encouraged his squad to keep on improving.
The second half, however, did not go so well for the Bears but to be fair Watsonians upped their game and started to use their big runners in the forwards to punch holes. There were a few unanswered tries in the second half but in the last ten minutes the Bears found some form again.
Stuart Whitelaw, who had impressed in the first half at outside centre before coming off after a head knock, returned to the field for the last twenty minutes, this time on the wing. He scored an outstanding solo try from the half-way line, which he ran in under the posts and quickly converted with a drop-goal. It was good to see this urgency from the former Hamilton player, who still believed the Bears had more tries in them.
This belief was rewarded as the Bears scored the final try of the match. This time it was from inside centre Aaron Maguire, who had been putting big hits in all day and had the facial injuries to show for it! The try was set up by a piece of sublime handling from Andy Hood, reminiscent of Sonny Bill-Williams in his pomp to put Maguire in space and the Ulsterman showed a clean pair of heels to score under the posts. At this point it must be mentioned that Hood had tried something similar moments earlier, with a drastically different outcome, managing to throw the ball vertically in the air to absolutely no one bar a ‘sonians defender. More Silly Bill than Sonny Bill!
The Bears finished the match the stronger but ultimately lost 43-33.
Coach Kev and captain Rod were both very proud of their team and most of all were buoyed by the vast improvement on the previous two games. With the return of a few more forwards in time for the first league fixture against Haddington this Saturday, the Bears should now be confident of a good start.
1.Rod Hutchison (capt), 2. Charles Campbell 3. Andy Hood, 4. Blair Calder, 5. Elliot Wynn-Higgins, 6. Chris O’Neill, 7. Greg Alexander, 8. Justin Tito, 9. Ciaran Wood, 10. Chris Evans, 11. Lee McDonald, 12. Aaron Maguire, 13.Stuart Whitelaw, 14. Chris Whitelock, 15. Calum Brockie
Replacements: Derek Murray, Ewan Gaskell, Luke Worthington
Photos by Dave Patterson (Copyright)
