Watsonians open their new season with a win over Heriots.
Premiership newcomers (new returnees?), Watsonians, took the honours at Myreside on Saturday as they took full advantage of reigning Champions, Heriots, stuttering start to the 2016-17 campaign.
A fairly dismal first half, which started well for the home side as they pressurised the visitors’ defence for a few minutes, degenerated into an unending period of scrums and subsequent penalties, most of which took place a few metres from Watsonians try line. A yellow card for handling on the ground was dealt out to ‘Sonians No. 8, Rory Drummond, was followed by the opening points via the boot of Alex Haggard. So, 20 minutes, in it was 3-0 to the Champions.
The next 15, or so, minutes saw the game open up and the type of rugby played that the decent sized crowd had paid to see with both sides running at the opposition. However, Watsonians came out on top of this passage of play with a score-levelling penalty from their 12 Ewan Scott, which followed on from fine run of pressure on the Heriots defence.
The final five minutes of the half saw another two successful penalties and a yellow card just before the break for Heriots’ flanker, Dylan Mason, who came under scrutiny almost removing the head of the opposing wing with a badly judged high tackle. Half time score 6-6.
The second half was an almost entirely different affair, and Watsonians demonstrated the new boys were more than capable of just making up the numbers with three tries to two.
The first try came after four minutes with a line break set up by the pack, which left Dairmaid Dee with a, dummy-assisted, run in for the try. Scott then scored the conversion to open up the gap to 13-6.
The next score came just over 10 minutes later as Watsonians continued to defend well and attack better. Yet another scrum, this one near Heriots’ line, lead to the visitors pack being blown apart by the home side and the referee, Graeme Ormiston, awarding, what some might have considered, a premature penalty try. Still, try it was and, with another successful Scott conversion, the score went out to 20-6.
At this point, the visitors woke up a bit to the fact they were ‘in a game’ and proceeded to press home some fine running attacks, which eventually culminated – helped a touch by a mis-directed home lineout – in a try down the right for centre, Liam Steele. Hagart then slotted home the conversion from out on the touchline to bring the scores closer at 20-13 with around 20 minutes of the half to go.
With just over half the remaining time played, Watsonians once again crossed the line for their third try of the match. Winning their lineout around the 22, the ball was moved quickly around, eventually outpacing the Heriots’ defence and allowing Scott to score at ground level. He missed his kick, but at 25-13 and just over five minutes left, it was looking difficult for the visiting side.
However, nothing daunted and all that, lead to the final score of the match as Heriots followed up a series of attacking plays with another try for Steele on the same spot as before, only for Hagart to miss the repeat conversion to leave the final score at 25-18 to Watsonians. The home side also won the inaugural 1896 Trophy, thus capping a superb return to top-flight rugby for the Myreside men.
Images from the match will appear here over the next few days.
