Preston Lodge 24

Peebles 22

Allan Beveridge

at Pennypit

THE last time these teams met Peebles scored a last-minute try to snatch victory.

This time the roles were well and truly reversed with Preston Lodge scoring in the 84th minute to take the win.

It was a close game throughout with the lighter and smaller Peebles pack being more mobile than their hosts.

But the home team were able to use their weight advantage in mauls and drives.

Peebles, though, had worked their way into a 12-0 lead by the interval.

David Collins scored the opening try after 10 minutes when Ruaridh Britton drew the covering full-back before releasing the pass.

Collins went from try scorer to try saver at the other end when he collected a grubber kick on his own line to clear.

Good play by Murray Brown and Scott Stoddart allowed Greg Raeburn to put in a well-weighted chip but the defence won the race to touch down.

Peebles did score their second try in the 20th minute as Scott Stoddart slipped an inside pass to David Wills for a touchdown next to the posts.

Raeburn added the conversion.

While Peebles had dominated much of the first half Preston Lodge had looked dangerous at times.

And they scored shortly after half time as Donald Anderson's attempted clearance bounced off Ross Brown and fell into touch.

The line-out led to Johnston crashing over the line.

Only good tackling by Rohan Maciver and Britton prevented further home tries.

And a Raeburn penalty briefly extended the Peebles lead to 15-5.

But a quickfire brace of tries from the Preston Lodge forwards - both converted - took the home team into a 19-15 advantage.

Preston continued to push the visitors back, but an interception by James Dow looked like it would lead to a Peebles try only for play to be brought back for a penalty.

In the 80th minute Peebles did score again.

Raeburn kicked a penalty to touch on the five-metre line.

Richard Harrison's clean catch allowed Neil Hogarth to barge over for the try.

Raeburn's conversion made it 22-19 to Peebles.

A poor restart from Peebles allowed the home full back to run all the way to the 22 - and once the forwards became involved, the ball was recycled well through the phases for the try line to eventually be breached in the 84th minute.