Oct
09
Peebles 2nd XV 33; Boroughmuir Bears 22
After a maiden season victory against Lasswade last week, the Boroughmuir Bears travelled to the Borders for the first time this season for a fixture with last years bogey team Peebles 2nds. The match was to take place on a newly created pitch in the middle of a local farmers field. Despite a raucous crowd of mainly sheep, the pitch was in good nick!
After a solid debut from the bench last week, Geordie prop Richard Robson took a starting place in the front row. Andy Hood returned to the side to take the number 8 shirt, with Jo Whitworth unavailable due to work commitments. In the backs, the line-up was strengthened by the centre pairing of Aaron Maguire and Stuart Currie, who have both been on 2nd team duty in recent weeks.
Peebles kicked off the match and had the early possession and territory, putting the Bears under pressure and eventually opened the scoring with a penalty kick from their full-back. The Bears, however, scored the first try of the game. This time the Bears put Peebles under good pressure in their twenty-two and the young home stand-off had an attempted clearance kick charged down by his opposite number, Chris Evans. The Bears number 10 was able to gather the charge-down and swan dive under the posts. He also added the conversion.
The Bears enjoyed the better of the first half play and played some attractive rugby at times, with forwards and backs linking well. The rucking and ball retention was also much improved on previous weeks.
The Bears had a half chance midway through the second half, when an attempted penalty kick from Evans rebounded off the posts and fell into the hands of energetic hooker Richard Marshall. It was only good scramble defence and a little bit of impatience from the Bears attack that stopped a try being scored.
Evans was able to add a penalty late in the first half but Peebles cut the deficit to 10-8 with an unconverted try.
With a coaching trio of Ed Zuiderent, Gerry Dryburgh and Stevie Douglas on hand for the Bears, their was plenty of knowledge and encourage imparted at half-time. The Bears were very much in control but a good start to the second half was imperative.
However, this was not to be the case unfortunately and Peebles came out strong in the second half. They scored early through their stand-off, who got his own back on Evans, by stepping past him and then showing a good turn of pace to finish off a score from fifty metres. The score was converted and the Peebles full-back added two penalty kicks soon after.
The Bears brought on some fresh legs with twenty minutes to go, Graham Rex coming into the second row, Cammy Leask on at centre with Calum Brockie departing and Stu Currie moving to full-back.
Peebles scored two more tries and put the game out of reach for the Bears with ten minutes to go. The Bears showed great character though and were able to score two tries of their own late on. The first was from Andy Clark, who added to his try against Haddington two weeks ago, with his trademark inside step and dart from close-out. The try went unconverted.
The last try for the Bears was a 70 metre, heroic effort in the last seconds of the match. Peebles looked to have been awarded a penalty by the referee on the Bears twenty-two, however a confused/cynical Justin Tito took the tap penalty for the Bears. The ref allowed the game to carry on and Tito raced up the field and linked with Cammy Leask who sped up the left wing. Leask tied up with twenty metres to go and was glad to see a supporting Aaron Maguire on hand to finish off the try. Maguire added the conversion and the ref blew the full-time whistle. Peebles 2nds running out winners 33-22.
There were a number of positives from the game. Firstly, the size of the squad was encouraging and the Bears now have much needed strength and competition for places. The coaches were very grateful for all the squad members that came down to the Peebles, especially the mainly positive attitude shown by the players that were not selected for the match day squad.
Secondly, the hard work put in by the coaches on Thursday night is starting to pay-off, with the Bears more effective at the breakdown, allowing more continuity and phases to be built. The Bears will continue to improve week on week and will look forward to the return fixture at home to Peebles.
The Bears face league new-boys Dunfermline 2nd XV next week at Meggetland, looking to get back to winning ways.
1.Richard Robson 2. Kyle Mackinnon 3. Richard Marshall, 4 Rod Hutchison (capt). 5. Andy Clark, 6. Justin Tito, 7. Roy Stewart, 8. Andy Hood, 9. Derek Murray, 10. Chris Evans, 11. Frank Yawayawe, 12. Aaron Maguire, 13. Stuart Currie,14. Chris Whitelcok, 15. Calum Brockie
Replacements: Luke Worthington, Connor O’Hagan, Graham Rex, Adam Bucko, Elliot Wynn-Higgins, Cammy Leask, Chris O’Neill
