Thebans 41

Walkerburn 25

Colin McCudden

at Murrayfield

HAVING beaten Caledonian Thebans twice in the League and the Bowl already this season, Walkerburn were looking for the triple crown when they travelled through to Murrayfield last weekend.

The 4G pitch at the back of the stadium provides a fast track for a pacey game and this didn't disappoint on Saturday.

Sandy Walker has become the established kicker and punished an early transgression by Thebans to put the Burn 3-0 up.

Thebans came back with a concerted spell of pressure and got their reward with a try out wide.

Burn showed some patience when camped on the Thebans line and persevered with kicking to the corner. They got their reward when Jack McDonald broke off a lineout mall and forced his way over.

However this score was wiped out almost immediately when Thebans scored under the posts following their own kickoff. After this setback the Burn got the bit between their teeth.

Further pressure ended in the ball going wide, centre Gary Alexander made an outside break and put James Mathews away with a lovely pass out the back. Before half time the Burn pack moved forward with another controlled maul, the ball was released to the back line when forward progress stalled and Sandy Walker dashed through the gap to score under the posts.

Walker's conversion made the half time score 20-12 to the visitors.

After the break Burn continued where they left off putting pressure on Thebans. After 10 minutes the ball went wide on the right. Simon Currie surprised everyone by being one of the men over.

The bigger surprise came when he produced a 'Toony flip' to put Jack McDonald in for his second try. Moments like these prove that rugby indeed is a beautiful game. Alas, for the Burn, the rest of the game was not so beautiful.

Leading 25-12 with 20 minutes to go they were the likely winners - however all credit is due to Thebans who pulled out a magnificent fightback.

Sustained pressure on the Burn line produced a try to start the comeback. Then Burn got their defence wrong as a Thebans winger found himself up against a front row and made hay to add a score that put Thebans in front.

Burn couldn't do anything to stop this irresistible momentum shift and looked shell shocked as Thebans ran in another three tries before the end. They ran out deserved winners by 41 points to 25.

The Burn will be at home on league duty this Saturday looking to make up for this defeat and show what they are capable of.