Rugby: Newport loss will help us in Premiership, says Cairns

Skipper Mark Cairns insisted Currie had learned lessons that would ultimately help in their defence of the Scottish Premiership title after going down by a tantalising 23-25 to Newport in the British and Irish rugby cup at Malleny Park last night.

After trailing 8-18 at the interval the Scottish champions fought back magnificently to lead 23-18 with 10 minutes remaining, only to be overhauled down the home straight.

Especially as this was Currie's first outing since early December and the Welshmen had two games under their belt already, this year there was little more a home side who scored tries by Ross Weston, James Johnstone and the outstanding Matthew Scott, could have done.

Even then, Hayden Abercrombie just fell short with an angled penalty from near the touchline in the closing moments that would have secured a deserved victory.

Cairns said: "It was a game we wanted to win and should have won. Little moments such as when a ball popped out the back of our set piece and their scrum half got round to relieve pressure ended up costing us,

"You have to build pressure at this level and when we did that we (then) let them off the hook.

"By contrast although our defence was pretty solid they were able to keep pressure on us for longer until they came away with points. You have to build phases and the higher up the ladder you go.

"That was as close a fixture as you'll get in this British and Irish Cup and it will definitely stand us in good stead for returning to bread and butter premiership rugby.

"In particular our scrummaging was sound and we got some good forward drives going.

"We definitely felt capable of competing against teams in the Welsh club league and look forward to future clashes with the likes of Melrose, Ayr and Glasgow Hawks after the way we took the game to Newport.

"Also, we saw a really impressive individual display from Matthew Scott.

"There's a lot of talk about Scottish rugby needing to bring through more stand offs.

"Anybody who watched Matthew against Newport would surely agree he deserves to be taken note of higher up the ladder."

Indeed, when he was substituted with a few minutes remaining, the Malleny Park stand rose to acclaim the contribution of last year's Scotland Under-20 ace.

As well as kicking accurately and particularly in using a stiff breeze after the interval, Scott was constantly looking to attack the gain-line; his second half try when slipping inside a marker was worthy reward for proving a constant threat.

As Cairns noted the B & I Cup is proving a real platform for up-and-coming talent at Currie. "When we lost at Cornish Pirates first time round it was our full back Tom Brown who got all the headlines and rightly so. Tom was solid against Newport but it was Matthew who really made people sit up."

In addition, young prop Ally Hamilton also seized the moment in augmenting strong set piece work with a remarkable 50 metres interception and burst upfield.

Had he looked for support on his right rather than left a try would have occurred but, as it was, the score was only delayed moments anyway.

If some of Currie's follow-up tackling and fringe defence was top drawer, their undoing proved to be occasionally slack discipline while the midfield never looked comfortable coping with the pocket battleship that was Newport centre Scott Williams.

Nevertheless, Currie made a dream start when Alex Dunbar ran back the kick off and from a line-out catch by Ryan Wilson the ball was slipped to Ross Weston who bored over for an unconverted try - his seventh of the season.

Newport retaliated with two penalties from stand off Gareth Bowen but with 15 minutes gone Currie regained the lead through an Abercrombie penalty.

Losing second row Adam Brown to the sin bin ironically proved the catalyst to Newport claiming the opening try as centre Wlliams blasted through to create the quick release possession that enabled Awcock to cross too wide out for Bowen to convert.

However, with Brown restored to the ranks Newport struck again as the ball was fed out wide to a huge overlap as the defence was drawn infield allowing winger Pewtner the simple task of touching down albeit a forward pass looked to have accrued in the build up.

When Currie re-started strongly downwind, Abercrombie kicked a penalty for 11-18 and after Wilson had set the tone with a blockbusting tackle Scott set up an attack which ended with him dummy his way over. The conversion levelled matters.

Even better was to come when Andy Turnbull and Wilson set up the supporting James Johnstone for try No.3, but it was to prove insufficient to sustain Currie in a dramatic finish as sub Jon Evans broke from a scrum to go in under the bar.

Bowen converted to make up for an earlier easy penalty miss but Currie can take great heart for next Saturday's trip to Dublin to face Leinster A.

Scorers:

Currie: Tries - Weston, Johnstone, Scott. Con - Abercrombie Pens - Abercrombie (2).

Newport: Tries - Awcock, Pewtner, J Evans. Cons - Bowen (3). Pens - Bowen (2)

Teams:

Currie: T Brown; A Dunbar, H Abercrombie, J Johnstone, A Turnbull, M Scott, R Snedden; J Cox, S Simonsen, A Hamiltom, R Wilson, A Adam, M Cairns, R Weston, M Entwhistle. Subs: F Gillies, R Merrilees, S Turnbull, G Temple, A Binikos, J Smith, A Whittingham.

Newport: A Awcock; O Broad, M Watkins, S Williams, M Pewtner, G Bowen, M Petri; D Pattison, A Ellis, D Way, Adam Brown, A Frampton, S Waldron, H Ellis, C Hill. Subs: Andy Brown, I Evans, D Rosser, L Burgess, R Jones, M Evans, J Evans.