Edinburgh Accies 15 - 40 Currie: Chieftains rule the roost

Accies started brightly but then faded in the autumn sunshine as Currie went through the gears to win comfortably.

Edinburgh Accies are thwarted by Currie at Raeburn Place. Picture: Scott Louden

Half a dozen well-crafted tries were more than a match for Accies’ hard-earned pair that came near the start and near the end of the game.

The teams squared up as the season approached its halfway mark separated by 24 points and with Accies slightly detached at the foot of the table, the only side yet to win.

And Accies were over the line with the ball inside the first minute but didn’t get the touchdown. They stayed on the front foot though and forced Currie to concentrate on defence for the first quarter when they were more or less confined to their own half.

After a couple of attacking five metre lineouts went awry, the home side were rewarded when they turned round a Chieftains breakout and ran it back in broken play for scrum-half Robbie Davis to go under the posts. Inside centre Richard Mill converted and added another three points with a 35-metre penalty a few minutes later.

Accies remained firmly in their opponents’ faces, preventing them from playing their trademark brand of running rugby until stand-off Vincent Hart found some space in midfield, threw a dummy, then passed to captain Robbie Nelson for the try between the posts. Centre Joe Reynolds converted.

Momentum had switched. Full-back James McCaig, in the starting XV for the first time, scored a second try out on the right and Kiwi kicker Reynolds thumped over the conversion. A third try followed, again out on the right, as winger Ben Robbins slipped a couple of tackles to run in the ball. Reynolds’ conversion attempt was short and Currie had a nine-point lead at halftime.

After the break Currie turned the screw. Accies scrum-half Davis was sent to the sin bin for a deliberate knock-on that broke up a dangerous attacking move but his intervention meant a depleted defence lost a hat-trick of tries in the space of the next 10 minutes. First replacement prop AP McWilliams crashed over the line for the bonus point try. Reynolds converted.

A fifth try was the most spectacular yet with Currie No.8 Scott McGinley running in an arc round would-be tacklers who couldn’t get near him. Reynolds converted and repeated the exercise moments later when scrum-half Charlie Shiel, on Edinburgh’s pro books, ran through some weak tackling for the sixth try.

The supply of tries had dried up temporarily but the game had turned into a procession. Accies didn’t let their heads go down and did enough as Currie relaxed to snatch a consolation try by full-back Robbie Chalmers. Mill couldn’t add the extras but by that stage it didn’t really matter.