We welcomed Gordonian RFC to Inverleith on the day of the Wales vs Scotland international for a rearranged National 2 fixture.
After beating us 37-20 at Countesswells on 16th September, our opponents had gone on an excellent run, beating Stirling County (A), Lasswade (A), Aberdeen Grammar (H&A), Berwick (H) and Kirkcaldy (A). Those seven victories, coupled with a 69-22 home win against Kirkcaldy on 9th September, meant that Gordonians were sitting in fifth place in the table on 43 points coming into this game.
They’ve only lost to Peebles (H&A), Falkirk (H&A), Newton Stewart (H&A) and Lasswade (H) this season – that’s the four teams above them in the league. Pretty impressive form for a team that only got promoted from National 3 last season.
Given our recent run of fine results, it was little surprise that our squad was largely unchanged from the one that had edged out Newton Stewart the week before. Rory Anderson returned to make his fiftieth 1st XV appearance, replacing Danny in the front row, while Kyle reclaimed his stand off berth from Tom Meyer.
We took an early lead in the wind and rain out on Pitch 1, Mike Jamieson claiming a try after 7 minutes to put us up 5-0. We then gifted the lead to Gordonians via an interception in their own 22, the conversion making the score 5-7 to the visitors. Undeterred, a fine team try saw Gregor Stirling scoring out wide; the tough conversion was missed but we were 10-7 in front.
We then embarked on a scoring spree reminiscent of that glorious performance at Bridgehaugh before Christmas. Hendo scored from first phase play to make it 15-7 then, after another converted try for the visitors, captain Swordy dived over from a clever lineout. That put us 20-14 in the lead with the bonus point secured.
We finally deigned to kick a penalty after that to widen the gap, Kyle’s boot stretching our lead to 23-14 despite the difficult conditions.
We then completed the scoring with two further tries, Hayden driving over from a lineout (28-14) and George Lee finishing off a long run by Mike Jamieson. Final score 35-14 after another fantastic team performance. A fine way to mark our final home league game of the season.
Delighted to report that the Gordonian boys stayed down to watch the Scotland game at Inverleith – well done to Breezey for keeping them hydrated with a few jugs of Juicy T!
We face another stern test against another in-form team this Friday evening as we take on Lasswade under the lights at Hawthornden.
Lasswade are sitting in fourth place in the table on 54 points, 12 points behind Falkirk and 13 points behind leaders Peebles. Lasswade have two games in hand on both of those teams, though, so are still in with an outside shot at promotion – another cracking game is on the cards!
Bill McNie
Photographs courtesy of Jax MacKenzie Photography
