GHA 38

Selkirk 36

IN a hugely entertaining, end-to-end contest, GHA brought Selkirk’s three-match winning streak to a dramatic halt at Braidholm on Saturday, withstanding a late onslaught by the Souters to squeeze home and collect five BT National League 1 points to the visitors’ two.

Although the final try count was five-four in Selkirk’s favour, the Philiphaugh players’ propensity for giving away needless penalties ultimately cost them the match – GHA fly-half Andrew Goudie taking full advantage of the visitors’ indiscipline to kick four penalties.

“Our game management today certainly wasn’t up to the mark,” Selkirk assistant coach Michael Jaffray told the selkirkrfc.com web site after the final whistle. “Whenever we scored a try we invariably let them back into the game by conceding a penalty, which was extremely frustrating.

“We had plenty of possession throughout the 80 minutes but played too much rugby in our own half, usually because of poor individual decision-making. That said, the boys did well to fight their way back into the game after looking dead and buried when down 30-10 early in the second half. True to form, they never gave up.”

It didn’t help that no fewer than three Selkirk players were shown yellow cards during the match – Mikey Davies, Frazer Anderson and Andrew Renwick (although the latter was almost certainly a case of mistaken identity). This left the visitors with 13 men on the field at one stage.

No-one battled harder for Selkirk’s cause than prop Michael Waldron, later chosen as the visitors’ ‘man of the match’, while flanker Ian Oosthuizen turned in another excellent performance and young utility forward Donald Nichol did everything that was asked of him when coming off the bench after the break.

GHA’s tries came from wing James Edgar (2), scrum-half Peter Jericevich and wing Andrew Spowart. Andrew Goudie completed the Glasgow team’s total with four penalties and three conversions.

Selkirk’s try scorers were Peter Forrest, Darren Clapperton, Michael Waldron and Frazer Anderson. The visitors’ fifth score was a penalty try, awarded after GHA’s forwards deliberately collapsed a rolling maul following a Selkirk line-out five metres from their try line.

Ciaran Whyte made a successful comeback to the Selkirk team wearing the No. 10 jersey, sending over four conversions and a penalty.

He had the chance to level the scores with the very last kick of the match, but his attempted touchline conversion of Frazer Anderson’s injury time try just drifted wide of the right-hand post.

Selkirk - D. Clapperton, F. Anderson, R. Nixon, C. MacDougall, T. Adams, C. Whyte, C. McEwan, K. Cooney, J. Bett, M. Waldron, A. Renwick, P. Forrest, I. Oosthuizen, M. Robertson, E. MacDougall. Replacements: R. Wilson, B. Siyothula, D. Nichol, M. Davies, D. Allan.