Rugby: Crombie eyes big time again as Muir up ante

The 24-year-old was released by Edinburgh last summer but claims to have found a new lease of life - and it showed as his club shrugged off an early deficit to notch a 33-17 bonus point win at Watsonians which adds to an unbeaten premiership start.

After four matches 'Muir now lead the table on scoring differential and Crombie believes it can be a win-win situation for both himself and the club so far as objectives are concerned.

"I played in South Africa during the summer and left my cv out there as I still have options so far as playing abroad is concerned.

"I actually had invitations to play Currie Cup (top inter-provincial) rugby with Griqualand but couldn't accept as I needed to apply for a visa from outside the country. Meantime I am enjoying my rugby again at Boroughmuir and catching up on some university studies."

If Crombie, rightly, grabbed most of the attention with his first ever try treble then it was another player with Edinburgh experience who set Boroughmuir on the road to victory.

Ross Samson, working his way back to fitness after injury and still very much part of the Edinburgh scene, came off the bench as 'Muir trailed 10-17 at the interval and immediately injected electricity into the back-line with a series of sharp breaks and slick passes.

While entitled to be disappointed that they failed to build on an early lead even Watsonians would admit that they couldn't respond when the core of Boroughmuir players with pro. experience - Crombie, Samson, Malcolm Clapperton, Ally Davidson and Ally Warnock - upped the ante.

Initially, though, it was all Watsonians with Andrew Skeen (ex-Amatori Milan) in supreme form, who called the shots. First Skeen threaded an accurate grubber kick for Dougie Brown to run on to and score against his old team.

Then, Skeen was up in support to cross after Watsonians' best player, Jamie Forbes, timed an angled run brilliantly from full back to go outside the cover and turn a pass in-field.

With Mike Ker slotting a penalty in between the two conversions Watsonians had a platform but seemed uncertain about how to kick on especially with the impressive ball carrier that is new second row Dan Gorman starting to fade soon after his arrival from Australia.

Additionally, a sin-binning for try-scorer Brown (high tackle) seemed to knock much of the stuffing out of Watsonians although, overall, they looked considerably improved compared with the opening weekend of the season at Heriot's.

Sensing home uncertainty Boroughmuir took a gamble by kicking a penalty to the corner when with prop Nick Fraser (ball killing) on a yellow card and it paid off when Jamie Doubleday scrambled over for his fourth try of the season.

Warnock converted on his way to a five-from-eight return with the boot as he did when Crombie started the second period with a touchdown. Two penalties followed before Crombie dotted down in the 57th and 74th minutes and it was hard to believe Watsonians played out the final 66 minutes without troubling the scoreboard operator.

Explaining the turn-around, Crombie looked in the direction of the visiting exchange referee. "It was inevitable he would referee in a slightly different way but he was consistent for both sides.

"Once we learned what was required we cut down on penalties and whereas we were lacking concentration for the final quarter a week previously we were slack at the start.

"That is unacceptable because when we come up against the likes of Ayr and Currie we will have to play for the full 80 minutes. In the final quarter we absolutely dominated and stayed on top of things by not making any mistakes but we can't afford another 60 minute effort only against Stirling County this weekend."

What made the 'Muir display all the more commendable was the introduction of young props Robin Hislop and Nick Fraser with a third rookie, Jonny Latta, contributing from the bench.

Scorers:

Watsonians: Tries: Brown, Skeen; Cons: Ker (2); Pen: Ker. Boroughmuir: Tries: Crombie (3), Doubleday; Cons Warnock (2); Pens: Warnock (3).

Watsonians: J Forbes, R Minto, A Skeen, D Brown, C Sorbie, R Aitken, M Ker, S Laird (c), N Hart, K Coertze, D Seed, D Gorman, S Ursache, H Grant, D Finnie. Subs: D Orr, R Turner, S Paulo, G Somerville, J Blackwood.

Boroughmuir: S Ruddick, R Neil, M Clapperton (c), J Fish, T Bury, A Warnock, S Johnson, R Hislop, S Crombie, N Fraser, T McColl, A Davidson, J Doubleday, N Rodger, D O'Riordan. Subs: G Jones, J Latta, A Rose, R Samson, H Leonard.