Accies win poignant opener at Inverleith.
After the rigours of the various Festivals taking place in Edinburgh throughout August, it was a welcome return to the ‘day job’ with the first match of the new season at Inverleith. It was, however, an occasion tinged with sadness as the four teams playing at the Stewarts Melville ground on Saturday lined up before the kick off to commemorate the sad passing of Inverleith stalwart, Gavin Calder.
The match started well for Stew-Mel as the home side pressurised the Accies defence and forced an early penalty, which No. 10, Scott Docherty, watched slide past the upright for an unfortunate miss.
Accies cleared but Stew-Mel continued to return the ball with some fine running rugby.
The first score of the match, however, came the way of the away side following a penalty awarded for a tip tackle by Stew-Mel centre, Neil Bowie. The kicker went to the corner and, from the subsequent line-out, Accies eventually piled over for the try, Captain and No. 8, Jamie Sole emerging with the ball. The kick was missed, but, with just over 15 minutes played, the score was 5-0 to Edinburgh Accies.
About five minutes later, Accies having turned around the possession game, scored their second. This was a virtual repeat of their first try, only on the other side of the pitch. A series of rucks and mauls off the top of a line out fired No 4, Ronan Seydak over the line for the second try of the match with 21 minutes played. This time, stand-off, Richard Mill, slotted the conversion home and it was 12-0 to the visitors.
The third try for Accies was scored a couple of minutes later from a combination of Sole and Seydak. The ball was gathered from the restart and swiftly moved wide where, on the half way line, Sole, accompanied by Seydak, skipped through a gap in the defence and made significant yards before passing the responsibility on to Seydak who galloped in from 20+ metres out and, following a brief scramble near the line, touched down for the try. Mill, again scored with the kick and the score was 19-0.
Stew-Mel held their own for the next ten minutes or so with neither side coming close, but with around five minutes left in the half, the Accies pack was, once again, parked on the home try line. They did propel one of their number over the line, but the referee deemed the ball ‘held up’ and awarded a five-metre scrum to the visiting side. He had only delayed the inevitable, though, as the ball was in the hands of scrum half, Sam Johnson and out to No. 11, Josh Pecquer who then crashed over in the corner for the bonus point try, Stew-Mel’s, Duncan Wood, being unable to prevent the score. Mill missed with the touchline conversion attempt, but as the half ended a few minutes later, Edinburgh Accies were 24-0 to the good.
The second half, as did the first, started well for the home side, only this time, they were the opening scorers.
The episode started in the home half with a missed lineout from Accies which immediately put Stew-Mel on the front foot and they launched the attack which eventually lead to Docherty piling over for a try near the posts. He then converted to make the score 24-7.
‘Is a comeback on?’ was the question for the home support as. Less the three minutes from the restart, Stew-Mel crossed for their second try. This one was off the back of a scrum inside the Accies 22, from which, the ball ended up with full back, Sean Murchie, who broke through a couple of tackles on his way to the posts. Docherty then scored the simple conversion to close the gap to 24-14.
The ‘comeback’ was put on hold for a time as Accies were next on the score board. A prolonged assault on the Stew-Mel goal line was rewarded on the 20 minute mark as sub, Jack Bruce, chased a kick over from Mill to score. Mill then converted to open the gap again to 31-14.
With just less than 15 minutes left, Stew-Mel scored their third try as one of their subs, Nathan Ross escaped the clutches of the defence to score, and, with Mill converting the score was 31-21.
A final exchange of tries in the last 10 minutes, or so, left the score at 38-26 in favour of Edinburgh Accies, but all at Inverleith agreed that a sad start to the day ended with a fine display of rugby that Gav Calder would have enjoyed to the final whistle. He was, however, remembered at the end of the match named in his honour when the winning Captain, Jamie Sole was presented with the inaugural ‘Gavin Calder Memorial Cup’.
Images from the match will appear here over the next few days.
