Marr 10

Gala 22

Eilidh Walker at Bridgehaugh

GALA beat National League One side Marr to secure their place in the top flight in a close BT Premiership play-off in Stirling on Saturday.

Gala scored two tries in the first five minutes of the match but a poor second half performance meant that Marr remained dangerous.

The opening try came within the first minute when Marr failed to gather the Gala kick-off and Frankie Robson crashed over the line, Ewan Scott failed to convert leaving the score at 5-0 to Gala and Marr already on the back foot.

When three minutes later Gala scored again through Euan Dods and Ewan Scott was able to add the conversion, it looked like Gala might run away with the game but this first burst of energy was short-lived.

Marr put up a spirited defence and their back line proved on several occasions that they deserved second place in this year’s National League One and their place in the play-off.

There were three yellow cards in the game with Craig Kolarik being sent to the bin first for Marr after 27 minutes and Gala’s Kris Mein following him just a minute later.

Following both cards Gala and Marr traded penalties scored by Scott and Colin Sturgeon respectively, the first points of the day for Marr taking the score to 3-15.

Gala rounded off their scoring for the match just five minutes before half-time Josh Irvine ran in a try from just inside the ten-metre line following a break from Gary Graham.

Scott added the conversion to take the half-time score to 3-22.

Following the half-time break Marr responded with a try, just four minutes in courtesy of wing Scott Bickerstaff who was one of Marr’s stand out players on the day. Colin Sturgeon added a conversion to close out the day’s scoring with a final score of 10-22 to Gala.

The pressure of the match seemed to take it’s toll on both sides in the second half with handling errors and ill-discipline denying either side further points. Gala were reduced to 14-men again in the second half when Craig Borthwick was sent to the bin for an early tackle but Marr failed to use this to their advantage.

The relief of the Gala team was clear to see when referee Lloyd Linton sounded the whistle to end the match and confirmed that there will be premiership rugby at Netherdale next season.

Following the win Gala coach Chris Dalgleish said: “At the end of the day all we had to do was win the game and that’s what we’ve done. I knew as soon as they got a sniff at the game they would obviously lift it and that’s exactly what they did.

"I know they’ve got five or six players who could quite easily play premiership rugby, no doubt about it and that was evident this afternoon.”

Having narrowly missed out on a top four premiership play-off last year, Gala have struggled to find their form this season, leading to the departure of long term coach George Graham.

Dalgleish added: “I hope the players have learned their lessons this year.

"We had half a dozen games we know we should have won but the premiership is a very tough league, you just have to win the games you should win and you won’t find yourself in this position. Hopefully the players will have learned from that experience and use it to kick them on into next year.”

Following the nail-biting end to the season Gala captain Chris Weir was keen to take the positives, he said: “It’s been a disappointing season on the whole, we got a few injuries at the start of the season to a few of the boys and it’s certainly been a hard season but next year is going to be even harder. We need to regroup as a team and work hard in pre-season, maybe get a few new faces in and freshen things up.”

Gala: Spiers, Robson, Burrows, Emond, Young, Scott, Graham, Pettie, Carryer, Keen, Weir ©, Palepoi, Mein, E. Dods, Irvine. Subs: Richie Tod, Lewis Bertram, Craig Borthwick, Rob Louw, Simon Fairburn, Stevie Cairns, Rex Jeffrey.