Oct
06
BOROUGHMUIR 4ths FIRST MATCH
By Ron Carr
Boroughmuir’s 4ths took part in their first match of the season on Saturday but because of a slight shortage of players, they and Duns combined to make up a full 15 squad with 2 subs.
After a full night of heavy rain, and some during the day, a damp heavy day of play was expected but the sun did however, rise over Pinkie Playing Fields. The match was against Musselburgh, and a team name came to mind for this combined team . . . Duns-Muir.
The opening exchanges of the match were dominated by Musselburgh, scoring two tries in the first eight minutes. They followed this with a wave of early attacks whose intent was to keep us on the back foot.
But this didn’t rattle the boys who for quite some time held Musselburgh at bay with a great dogged defence.
For a period, the defence of both teams did not let the game stray too far from up and down both wings, but then from deep in their own half, some pretty good passing let one of the Muir boys over for the combined teams (Duns-Muir), first try. Then from a restart the ball went to the big Musselburgh forwards who tried, and to a degree, succeeded in battering their way up field.
But ruck after ruck, the ball kept changing hands between both sides until the combined team (Duns-Muir), got a good quick ball and charged down field with the ball whizzing this way and that, resulting in another try.
From then on the combined team (Duns-Muir) began to get things together and some good player acceleration and passing resulted in more tries. However, Musselburgh kept up a very determined performance themselves, never making anything easy, the big forwards using their size to try and hammer through, with their backs keeping up in support.
But then, after a quick talk the combined side (Duns-Muir) seized the day with some really good tackling of the big forwards, which led to another and another try. Although Musselburgh never gave up trying to get back on terms there was a somewhat forced myriad of slip ups that the combined team (Duns-Muir) grabbed with both hands.
Throughout, Musselburgh never really gave up but by then the Duns-Muir had come up with some pretty good plays and tries that were just too much for Musselburgh.
All in all, not a bad performance for the combined team (Duns-Muir) when considering that it was a mixed team and quite a few players were playing out of their normal positions.
So, thanks go to all on both sides who played in the match.
Matches like this give the players important match time.
Musselburgh 25 v Joint Team (Duns-Boroughmuir) 46
