Edinburgh Accies 40 - 17 Dundee HSFP: Farndale leg break sours Accies display

SIMON Cross looked like he had found a penny but lost a pound at the conclusion of this comprehensive bonus point win for the Raeburn Place men. A sickening leg break suffered by Jamie Farndale in the seventh minute meant that this was definitely a hollow victory for the Accies coach.

SCORERS:

Edinburgh Accies – Tries: Young, Teague (2), Reid, E Campbell, Douglas. Cons: Bonner (5).

Dundee – Tries: Hawkins, Walker, Islam. Con: Steele.

The winger became the youngest player ever to represent Edinburgh when he came on as a replacement for the pro team against the Ospreys towards the tail-end of last season’s RaboDirect Pro12 campaign, and he was the top try scorer at this year’s IRB Junior World Championships.

A big future has been almost unanimously predicted by all those who have witnessed his progress – but that is on hold now as he recovers from this cruellest of setbacks.

“That took the gloss of everything. It sounded horrendous and I don’t think it is a good one. It’s a broken fibula. He’s such a quality young player. Hopefully it is a clean break and there are no complications,” said Cross. “Winning 40-17 is a fantastic result and I’m delighted with the way the boys stuck in, but it came at a price I wouldn’t be willing to pay normally.’

Accies got off to a flyer with Ruairidh Young streaking over in the fourth minute after a powerful surge from a set line-out move by Greg Campbell; but Dundee bounced straight back and it is was during the build-up to Richie Hawkins’ equaliser that Farndale suffered his injury.

Two quick tries by Dan Teague and Callum Reid after the break put Accies into a commanding position that they never looked like relinquishing.

Stewart Walker narrowed the gap briefly, but a sweeping counter-attack from the restart ended with Ewan Campbell claiming the bonus point try.

Gavin Douglas was next on the score sheet and Teague grabbed his second, before Polok Islam scored a consolation try for Dundee at the death.

Accies climbed into the top half of the table for the first time this year with this win, while Dundee are now only cushioned from rock bottom by Aberdeen Grammar.

Coach Iain Rankin pointed out that injuries had prevented him from naming a front-row until the eve of the match. “In the ten years I have been at Dundee this has probably been my toughest ever week in terms of the catastrophic number of injuries. But at half-time I was delighted because, for a bunch of guys who had literally just been introduced before the game, I thought they were doing alright,” he said.

“We went in at the break feeling we were going to win this game and I don’t know what happened. We hit a dip, missed a few tackles and they put them away.”

Dundee’s British and Irish Cup campaign kicks-off in a few short weeks’ time and Rankin is confident that key men Andy Dymock and Alan Brown will be back by then. He is going to need them.