WATSONIANS survived a second half comeback from Heriot’s to retain the Bill McLaren Shield and underline their Premiership contenders credentials in an entertaining Edinburgh derby. The hosts dominated the opening 40 minutes and bagged the bonus point inside the first 20 after a flurry of tries left the previously undefeated visitors utterly bewildered. Despite finding their groove in the second period, the away team left themselves with far too much to do as the hosts grabbed all five points under the Friday night lights at Myreside.
“Some of the rugby we played in the first half was just outstanding and I thought the scoreline probably reflected our dominance that we had, but in the second half we were really confused by the penalty count,” Watsonians head coach Davey Wilson said afterwards. “But we were masters of our own downfall, and we are relieved that we managed to get out of the situation we put ourselves in.”
Watsonians bossed the opening phases, getting deep into the Heriot’s half as the visitors infringed. A penalty try after five minutes, and an early yellow card for Rory Kirkpatrick, spelled trouble for Heriot’s who seemingly had no answer to Watsonians’ dominant rolling maul.
Heriot’s head coach Bob McKillop mused post-match that his side “didn’t even get on the bus because we brought our cars.” Well, if they were still on that metaphorical bus after such a disastrous start, then it presumably got snarled up in traffic coming across the capital during Friday night rush hour, because Watsonians scored an almost carbon copy second try of the match, with captain Neil Irvine-Hess getting his first of two scores for the night.
Having clipped over the first conversion, Jason Baggot’s second effort sailed wide, but that mattered little as Watsonians were, almost embarrassingly, given another effective freebie to extend their lead to 19-0.
Heriot’s, desperate to try and get something going early doors, struggled with their set-piece and having stolen a line-out inside their own half, Watsonians continued to carve up their opposition with a huge break in midfield by Stu Allison. At sixes and sevens, Heriot’s couldn’t defend fast enough, and Irvine-Hess completed his double in the corner, with Baggott adding the extras.
Try as they might, Heriot’s found neither possession nor territory. When they did have the ball, handling errors dogged their game and Watsonians were certainly not in the mood to give them a free pass. With 20 minutes gone, the hosts had their fourth and bonus00point try and things were starting to look very nasty for Heriot’s.
This time, Heriots’ fringe defence was exposed alarmingly as home full-back Freddie Owsley burst through the line on halfway after selling a dummy. He went all the way and rubbed further salt into the Heriot’s wounds by beating both wingers and his opposite number en route to the line.
Towards the end of the first half, Heriot’s did begin to put things together, only for their line-out to malfunction again, thanks due in part to Watsonians’ new off-season recruit, former Heriot’s coach Finn Gillies. They had two chances go begging but counted themselves lucky they didn’t concede more tries as twice Watsonians were held up over the line.
The second time, on the brink of half-time, resulted in a Watsonians penalty, which Baggott slotted to make it 29-0 at the break.
Astonishingly, that was the last time Watsonians would score in the match, as Heriot’s somehow came out at the start of the second half a completely changed side. McKillop’s men got an early penalty try, with replacement Murray Tink joining second-row Luis Ball on the sidelines for 10-minutes after the latter was sin-binned for a high tackle a few moments before.
Suddenly, the momentum seemed to be with Heriot’s, against 13-men now, and they went back up the field and got their second score barely five minutes later, this time talismanic captain Ruairidh Leishman crashing over from short-distance. It was not quite ‘game-on’ yet but, with Ross Jones’ conversion, it was 29-14 with 25 minutes to play.
Watsonians’ discipline then began to crumble, which left head coach Wilson scratching his head post-match. How had the game turned on its head as dramatically? Heriot’s were soon back inside the Watsonians 22 and, despite losing the line-out again, Kirkpatrick made amends for his yellow in the first half by diving on a loose ball with under 10 minutes left to get his side’s third try.
Now the hosts were seriously wobbling. But Heriot’s were unable to capitalise as their set-piece continued to be picked apart, and, with just two minutes to go, Watsonians hooker Cal Davies got a vital turnover on halfway linewhich seemed to reverse the tide just enough for the home side to claim all five points and deny Heriot’s of a deserved losing bonus.
“Special mention has to go to our defensive team and Finn Gillies, formerly of Heriot’s, who worked so much on targeting their line-outs throughout the week and going about trying to put it under as much pressure as possible,” said Wilson. “We’ll take the win, but we’ll need to analyse how we got ourselves into the position we were in during the second half.”
His counterpart, McKillop was similarly bittersweet about his side’s fluctuating performance. “We can’t ignore the first half but to come back from 29-0 down in the first half and stop them from scoring in the second, so I’m really proud of the boys and how we can take a lot of lessons from that non-performance,” he concluded.
This match report has been written by Stephen Brunsdon of The Offside Line - please visit their website here: https://www.theoffsideline.com/
