Currie 7-21 Boroughmuir: ‘Muir the merrier

Boroughmuir grew in confidence the longer this game went on against a misfiring Currie team who failed to rise to an occasion that ended dismally for them in a brief, bad-tempered punch up.

Curries John Cox has his path blocked by Boroughmuir pair Cal Davies and Johnny Adams at Malleny Park on Saturday. Picture: Neil Hanna

Scorers: Currie – Try: Weston. Con: Reynolds. Boroughmuir – Tries: McConnell, Moody. Con: Laidlaw. Pens: Laidlaw (3).

Currie had the chance to rise from sixth to fourth place in the BT Premiership but they blew it under the floodlights, almost everything they tried spoiled by handling errors or wrong options.

Boroughmuir had the chance to move off the bottom of the league table and they seized it gratefully with an accomplished performance that saw them nudge ahead in the first minute and never look back.

’Muir coach Bruce Aitchison said the difference from their early-season form of eight defeats in 12 games was being able to pick from an almost injury-free squad and to play with greater understanding and consistency among the players.

“We are in a better position than we were yesterday but there is still a lot of work to do,” he said. “I am hopeful we can now enjoy the wee festive break and then come back together ready for January.

“It is frustrating because we have never been able to field a team like that all season through injuries and other bits and pieces. We finally put out a team today that has had a bit of time together in training and in performance. It means you are able to build on things rather than have to create something new every week as we were having to do at the start of the season.

“There were moments out there on the pitch when, even two games ago, we could have cracked. The intensity we played at to try and stretch them and play rugby and support the ball carrier and keep the tempo high against a team that works very, very hard for each other.

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“I was really proud of the way the boys kept going. It is really what they deserve at points this year but they have never been able to stick it together for long enough. It can give them the belief that the coaching team have in them and that they have maybe not had in themselves.”

With 15 minutes to go and seven points ahead, Boroughmuir chose to kick for the corner rather than consolidate their lead. “That is a belief thing, a feeling of momentum,” Aitchison explained. “Teams can be let off the hook by conceding a penalty and you can take three points but the damage isn’t that great whereas the feel for the game was, ‘we are on top, they are not threatening us, so let’s stick it in there’. That’s the belief I am talking about, a feeling for the performance and a feeling for the game, that comes from a bit of time together.

“Overall we got what we deserved because of the way we played and the situation the boys have had to cope with. I am hoping that come the turn of January they will still be together and things will be looking rosier as we go into the end of the season.”

Boroughmuir went ahead from the kick-off by winning a penalty that stand-off Chris Laidlaw dispatched between the posts. Currie’s Joe Reynolds then missed two penalties in the space of two minutes, the second attempt an outrageously ugly kick that didn’t rise to the height of the crossbar. Meanwhile, Currie’s big pack were dominating territory and possession but neither forwards nor backs were making any impression on a stuffy defence.

Boroughmuir, with what little possession they could scavenge, always looked the more dangerous and the home side’s frustration began to grow as Laidlaw kicked a second penalty and then a third, with Currie’s complaints to the referee about being penalised at the set scrum resulting in an additional ten metres to bring the kick within range. Laidlaw delivered the points and the scoreline was 0-9 at half-time.

Currie responded to the first 40 post-mortem by going for Boroughmuir’s throat and confining them in their own 22. A kick for the corner set up a lineout that transformed into a rolling maul that trundled all the way to the line with the visitors unable to do anything to prevent it. Captain Ross Weston claimed the try and Reynolds converted, to move the hosts to within two points.

Boroughmuir replied immediately as winger Grant McConnell won a foot race to touch down over the line after a loose ball was hacked up the pitch only for the referee to call back play after the touch judge’s intervention. He had spotted some jersey pulling that ruled out the score. Currie’s relief was short-lived because the next time the ball was in McConnell’s hands he went up the right wing through shrugging off a couple of half-hearted tackles to go over in the corner.

The conversion attempt was wide but Boroughmuir’s victory was assured with five minutes left when lock Iain Moody saw a space and charged through it to go under the posts for his team’s second try.

Currie: C Logan; R Nairn, M McPhillips, J Reynolds, H Elms; J Semple, R Snedden; J Cox, M Goodwin, G Carson, R Denonian, C Mclean, M Vernel, P Mundell, R Weston. Replacements: R Patterson, M Erskine, G Temple, T Gordon, M O’Neill.

Boroughmuir: N McLennan; G McConnell, J Edmonds, D Reekie, S Visser; C Laidlaw, J Adams; R Wilson, C Davies, J Latta, A Best, I Moody, A Rose, M Entwhistle, M Bradbury. Replacements: D Miller, A Wallace, C Keddie, S Johnston.

Referee: K Allen.

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