Edinburgh sides triumph at BT Murrayfield.
Three Edinburgh clubs were involved in the six men’s and women’s final at BT Murrayfield on Saturday and all three won their respective trophies.
The first success came from Watsonians in the BT Women’s Plate Final, played on the artificial surfaced back pitch, where they were run close by Stirling County after establishing a 20-5 lead at the break. The first try came after a minute of play when Isla Miller ran in down the left. This early lead was soon wiped out by Stirling’s Jess McGurk who outsprinted the opposition down the right-hand touch line for Stirling’s opener with 10 minutes played.
However, Watsonians then scored three, unanswered tries before half time from Sarah Nimmo, Emma Evans and a second from Miller for their 20-5 lead.
An early second try from McGurk – which was a carbon-copy of her first outsprint of the opposition – gave some hope to the County side, but a fifth try for Watsonians came in the shape of Kym Smith following a series of rucks along the try line, the lock forcing her way over through a pile of bodies.
With 20 minutes to go, Stirling then started to come back into the game with third from McGurk, who had used her sheer speed over the ground to great effect all game, for a 25-15 scoreline.
This was followed up after a period of intense pressure with a fourth try, with four minutes left to play, by a try from Rachel Shankland, who had the good sense to carry on and dot down under the posts. Heather Davis then scored the first successful kick of the match to make it a three point game at 25-22.
The final minutes were a bit nervy for Watsonians, but they held on for the win and the BT Women’s Plate.
Images from the match will appear here over the next few days.
