Boroughmuir 40 - 17 Edinburgh Accies: Joy of six tries

The Premiership side beat the National League One side here as the result went by the form book in an all-action cup tie under the floodlights.

Aubrey McCube of Boroughmuir is tackled by Accies pair Alex Glashan and Clement Lacour. Picture: Neil Hanna

Boroughmuir, hovering just above the relegation play-off place, may be having a poor season but they carried too much firepower for a plucky Accies team, who are likely to have their own play-off crack at regaining Premiership status after two years in the lower league.

The home side can look back on a job well done as they notched up half a dozen tries and Accies can say they were at least in with a shout in the first half, until Boroughmuir assumed full control and ran away with it in the second 40.

Within five minutes of the kick-off on a raid-sodden pitch, Accies had points on the board. A maul from a five metre lineout rolled over the line and tighthead prop Clement Lacour claimed the try. Stand off Andrew Bell converted.

Boroughmuir responded by retaining possession through several phases until winger Grant McConnell collected it in midfield and followed a curving line through the Accies’ porous defence for the try. No.10 Chris Laidlaw converted to square the game.

Boroughmuir didn’t look back after that. Accies chewed up the territory until a promising attack was halted by a turnover and Boroughmuir carried to the other end for centre Greg Cannie to feed McConnell for his second try. The conversion came back off the crossbar.

Accies’ infrequent attacks were blunted by their tendency to hold on in rucks once they got inside the home 22 but when Boroughmuir were caught not rolling away, Bell knocked over the penalty.

A neat combination of passing and running between scrum-half Sam Johnson, hooker Martin McGinley and centre Alex Cox took Boroughmuir deep into the Accies half where hooker Callum Black earned himself a yellow card for killing the ball then Jack Paterson followed him to the bin for blatantly holding back a player.

Thirteen-man Accies somehow managed to hold up the Boroughmuir pack as it drove across the line but they couldn’t stop Jordan Edmunds when the ball went wide. Laidlaw converted.

After the break, Accies were restored to full strength but a fourth try under the posts by replacement full-back Robert Cairns effectively ended the game as a contest. Next McConnell completed his hat-trick by running in an easy try on the right wing as Accies tired. Substitute hooker Stewart Clark was next to score as Boroughmuir players queued up to get their names on the scoresheet.

Accies might have been dead but they weren’t quite buried.

They finished with a flourish when Paterson shrugged off a couple of unconvincing tackles to stretch out and score. Bell had the last word with the conversion.