GHA 26

Selkirk 15

Kris Tatum

at Braidholm

IT'S been an up and down season, as well as week, for Selkirk.

After the highs of beating neighbours Gala midweek, the Souters couldn't follow it up with victory in Glasgow.

The defeat also saw Selkirk drop down to fourth in the table.

It was a fairly even first half with an eye-catching try from Darren Clapperton opening the scoring for the visitors after 10 minutes.

But GHA responded well and after a few minutes of prolonged pressure Andrew Goudie won the race for his grubber kick to level the scores.

Goudie added the conversion to give GHA the lead.

Play ebbed and flowed, but it was the home team again who showed the enterprise to break open Selkirk's defence.

Charles Lonergan made a tremendous break, which led to a penalty award at the breakdown.

From the resulting lineout GHA drove towards the line with Andrew Sprowart going over in the corner.

Goudie converted to make it 14-5.

Fraser Anderson made a telling break for Selkirk as they looked for a way back into the game, and the quickly recycled ball allowed Josh Welsh to crash over in the corner.

The concluding 10 minutes of the half turned into an arm wrestle with neither side able to make any further breaks.

Selkirk began the second period on top with some determined drives taking GHA deeper and deeper into their own half.

The pressure eventually led to Luke Pettie racing over on 55 minutes.

Another missed conversion left Selkirk only a point to the good at 15-14.

Clapperton made several good runs as the visitors continued on the front foot.

And a yellow card for home forward Michael Scott looked to have given the visitors more of an upper hand.

But it was GHA who finished the better and in the 69th minute Charlie Lonergan completed a great move for the hosts.

It was still all to play for in the final 10 minutes.

As Selkirk searched for a winning try, it was GHA who were to score again with Michael Scott going over in the 88th minute

The conversion gave GHA a 26-15 victory.

Selkirk: S Hamilton F Anderson D Clapperton, R Nixon, J Welsh, A McColm, C McEwan, L Pettie, N Hall, D Anderson, A Renwick, M Gordon, S Nixon, D Nichol, E McDougall, J Bett, B Riddell, R Reilly, C MacDougall, G Ross.