Hawick Linden 40
Edinburgh Northern 8
RBS EAST DIVISION TWO
ALL rugby clubs appreciate the support of their sponsors.
But Hawick Linden had even more reason to be grateful to Saturday’s match sponsor Forrest Irving, who supplied both a quad bike and a driver, Linden prop Jamie Gilchrist, to assist the squad who cleared snow from Wilton Lodge Park on Saturday morning, allowing their game against Edinburgh Northern to be one of the few in Scotland which went ahead.
Although very soft in places, the pitch was in remarkably good condition and both sides contributed to a very well contested game with no shortage of running rugby on show. The visitors opened the scoring with a long-range penalty when the hosts were caught offside.
With the close-quarter play keenly contested, there were 20 minutes on the clock before the first try arrived. Linden’s Steven Bouglas made good ground from turnover ball and found Nathan Murray in support, who raced over to give Stuart Renwick an easy conversion.
Murray was involved in the second try just before the break, catching a kick and bursting up the touchline. Play found its way to Steven Bouglas who had the pace to round his opponents and touch down. Renwick converted once more. Half time: 14-3 to Linden.
It took only five minutes for scoring to resume after the restart. Murray again was in on the action to finish off a well-worked move with a try.
Next on the scoresheet was Craig Mitchell, who twisted his way out of a tackle to dot the ball down, while further tries from Greg Bouglas and Graham Colville, with two more conversions from Renwick and one from Barry Sutherland completing the scoring.
A very satisfying win for Linden against a well-organised team.
Team: N. Murray; G. Thomson, S. Bouglas, S. Goodfellow, C. Gracie; S. Renwick, R. Hamilton; J. Gilchrist, S. Harkness, T. Skeet, K. Mabon, S. Fairbairn, G. Wardle, G. Bouglas, C. Mitchell. Subs: B. Sutherland, R. Beattie, M. Knight, G. Colville, R. Stitt, C. Turnbull, S. Campbell.