Rugby – Watsonians v Boroughmuir

Boroughmuir take the points in a lacklustre encounter at Myreside.

The day started badly with the revelation that the programme named, but didn’t number, the players and faded away after that with a fairly dreary match, played under fairly dreary skies.

Boroughmuir started the better of the two teams with some attacking rugby from the off, forcing Watsonians into kicking downfield on a couple of occasions. Their persistence was rewarded after about nine minutes of play when they were awarded a penalty inside their opponents half. However, the kick from the No. 10, David Reekie, bounced off the crossbar and back into play where one of the ‘Muir players collected the ball and appeared to touch down for the try. Unfortunately the referee had spotted a knock on and the scrum was awarded to ‘Sonians, allowing them to clear their lines.

This point also signalled a sea-change in the flow of the match and it was the home side that played the better for the rest of the half. They were awarded a penalty after another five minutes of play, which Mike Ker knocked over to put them 3-0 ahead. The game then see-sawed back and forth, but territorial advantage always lay with the home side. A few probing runs into the opponents 22 came to naught, however, but the visitors were struggling to even cross the half way line.

Another penalty a few minutes from half time put ‘Sonians 6-0 to the good, before disaster struck, Running the ball back to ‘Muir territory, a quick recycle had the ball with Ker. His quick pass infield then failed to find its target as ‘Muir’s 13, Alex Cox intercepted and ran half the length of the pitch to score the only try of the match under the posts. Reekie couldn’t – and didn’t – miss the conversion and so the visitors were 7-6 ahead, which remained the score at the break.

If anything, the second half was less exciting than the first, with Watsonians clearly unable to match their first half performance. Barely able to get out of their end of the pitch for the majority of the half, they went further behind from two penalties, a successful one from Reekie and another later in the half from Craig Marshall.

As darkness was beginning to descend, the match brightened up considerably as someone, somewhere found a shilling for the meter – ask your parents – and the lights went on. But, it took until five minutes from the end of the match – which coincided with the heavens opening – before Watsonians were able to put in a meaningful attack. It almost paid off as they penetrated to inside the ‘Muir five metre line, but a fumble gave the visitors a chance to clear from the scrum and the match ended 13-6 to Boroughmuir a few seconds later.

The cold, swirling wind, heavy pitch and frequent showers did nothing the help this top of the table clash turn into the spectacle it could have been. However, neither team looked like scoring a barrow load of tries and, if it hadn’t been for a fortunate interception – suspiciously like offside – then there may not have been any scored at all. This all leaves the top of the table ‘as was’ with Boroughmuir a further three points ahead of Watsonians and Stewarts-Melville close behind in third. The ‘quality’ of the match was highlighted when Boroughmuir’s videographer commented that the most exciting thing he’d shot all day was the rainbow in the first half!

Images from the match will appear here over the next few days