Gala 27 - 23 London Scottish: Gala’s fightback stuns Scottish

By ATHOLL INNES
Published on 15/10/2012 00:39

GALA players raised their game beyond expectations and marked a British and Irish Cup debut with an historic win in front of a crowd of more than 1,000 spectators at Netherdale.

SCORERS:

Gala: Tries, Somereville, Palepoi, Robertson. Cons, Millar (3). Pen, Millar. Drop goal, Millar.

London Scottish: Tries, Mantella, Lipp, Quigley. Con, Love. Pens, Love (2).

The performance and the final result was a huge boost for Scottish rugby as the team, made up of mostly local players, held on in a dramatic finish of almost five minutes of injury time to grasp a famous victory.

Coach George Graham described it as a “fantastic” day for the club, although he admitted that there were tough challenges ahead in the same competition.

“I am absolutely delighted and proud of the boys,” he said. “They showed a lot of character, particularly in the last 15 minutes. This is all about a learning experience and we know that we can hold our heads up with these boys. I learned, too, that we can play rugby and they just need to believe in themselves, be sensible with the ball and be patient when they have it.”

Gala raced into a 10-0 lead after nine minutes, Lee Millar kicking a penalty and converting Grant Somerville’s try in the right-hand corner. The tough Scottish forwards, the quick running of their backs and a yellow card for Chris Weir saw the visitors to storm ahead with tries from Miles Mantella, Willie Lipp and Colin Quigley with James Love kicking a penalty and a conversion.

The Gala fightback, led by a strong forwards’ performance, was remarkable as Opeta Palepoi and Craig Robertson went over in the space of four minutes, Millar converting, before Love added a penalty and Millar sealed the win with a drop goal eight minutes from the end.

London Scottish captain Tyler Hotson said: “We put a lot of emphasis on this game as we were looking for our first away win of the season and naturally we are disappointed. Gala are a good side and have excellent support, and they built on that in the game.”

Former Scottish internationalist and Edinburgh player Phil Godman added: “It was good to come back to Netherdale, and Gala came back to get into the game after we led (20-10) at the interval.

“They were a tough team and the crowd was also very vocal. You could tell with the reaction at the end how happy they were to beat us.

“Fair play to them, they stuck in and kept going and deserved to win the match.”

The Gala pack shocked their opponents, turning the scrum a few times, while their defence was outstanding in the final minutes as Scottish pressed for a try to steal the victory from Gala.

There were no failures in a Gala team, said Graham, and it did not matter to him that Scottish had rested a few players, saying: “It showed what we can do.”

Gala: A McLean; G Somerville, C Auld, J King, C Robertson; L Millar, George Graham; L Pettie, C MacIntosh, E McQuillin, C Weir, O Palepoi, Gary Graham, S Cairns, E Dods Replacements: R Anderson, C Keddie, C Dods, B Turner, K Mein, D Owensen.

London Scottish: J Love; M Mantella, D McCall, P J Gidlow, D Howells; P Godman, R Samson; C Quigley, M Bloomberg, A Mackenzie, S Twomey, T Hotson, W Lipp, B Lonergan, J Trayfoot. Replacements: M Strachan, M Irish, P Spivey, L Calder, R Bolt, A Reay, G Mullen.

Referee: E O’Connell.