Round 3 of the RBS National League saw another Borders team, Biggar, make the trip up to Edinburgh to play Watsonians at Myreside. It was to be a trip they may now wish they had cancelled.
The match started with a few moments of kicking the ball back and forward, but it soon settled to a handling game, with the first couple of scrums showing that the new rules appeared to suit Biggar, as the visitors pushed the home side all over the place. It was to be Watsonians who were first on the scoreboard, however. A cross field kick from Ben Di Rollo was picked up by ‘Sonians No. 6, Neil Irvine-Hess, who powered through the attempted tackle to score the opener. Di Rollo missed the kick, but Watsonians were 5-0 ahead. A missed penalty from Di Rollo was followed up with a dropped ball by Ally Ledingham who had a clear run in to the try line.
It didn’t take the home side long to take advantage of their possession, as another line-break saw Ewan Miller handed the ball off the deck to stroll in for a try under the posts. Di Rollo put the kick over and it was 12-0 to Watsonians. Despite their dominance of open play, a knock on from the restart saw the Watsonians scrum absolutely blown apart by Biggar and from this they got the ball down the left to allow No. 11 Craig Parker to break through for Biggar’s opening score. With the kick missed the score was now 12-5 to Watsonians.
Biggar’s ‘opening score’ was to prove their closing score as the home side went on the rampage, scoring tries at will – Aitken(2), Smith and Ross – and dropping a few on the way – to finish the first half 43-5 ahead.
The second half continued where the first finished. About the only time Biggar saw the ball was deep in their own half due a variety of errors, and subsequent scrums, from Watsonians or from lineout ball. Scrum half, Ramsey Young opened the taps after a minute and it just continued from there. The match was held up briefly by what looked like a serious injury to Biggar’s Charles Cochrane, but he eventually managed to move off under his own steam. Once play had restarted, further tries from Steele, Ledingham, Hart and Ross, backed up by kicks from Di Rollo and sub, Mike Ker served to underline Watsonians total dominance of the match. A few tries went a-begging with a variety of errors, but those would have probably just changed the restart times rather than affected the score too much. Biggar did come up with their own attacking sequence in the final few minutes, but the match was really done-and-dusted at half time, never mind minute 75.
The final tally for Watsonians was 74 points to 5 in a comprehensive demolishment of a Biggar side who looked quite good for all of 10 minutes. Head coach Marcus Di Rollo has reached into his box of tricks and not only has he persuaded Allan Jacobsen to turn out in the front row, but former Scotland and Lions forward, Jason White, has joined the backroom staff to lend his experience and expertise to the Myreside outfit. So far, in addition to this match, Watsonians have put 44 points past Peebles and 51 against Selkirk, but it’s early days, and nobody at Myreside is getting the silver polish out just yet.
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