Stirling County 24

Southern Knights 24

David Morrison

at Bridgehaugh

KNIGHTS snatched an unlikely draw on Saturday as they find their feet in the Super6.

The Melrose-based team had been second-best against Stirling during a one-sided first half.

But a courageous late rally, with Ciaran Whyte converting Patrick Anderson's injury-time try, gave them a share of the points.

County had raced into a deserved 19-3 lead at the interval.

Josh Henderson side-stepped his way to within ten metres of the line to set up Dean Taylor-Menzies to crash over the line.

Whyte did reduce the gap with a penalty approaching the quarter hour.

And for a short spell Knights looked to be getting on top.

But the pace of the Stirling backs continued to cause problems.

Stirling's second try, though, came from the forwards with a few drives eventually leading to Reyner Kennedy touching down.

Josh Henderson added the conversion.

With half-time approaching County added a further try.

Further drives allowed Andrew Davidson to barge his way over the line.

It had been a dominant display by Stirling with Knights offering little as an attacking force.

The game swung early in the second half with the Borders team pegging their hosts back.

Ruaridh Knott was on hand to finish off a fine flowing move.

And the revival continued when Michael Mvelase-Julyan grabbed Murdo McAndrew's clever reverse pass to race in at the corner.

With Whyte converting both scores, the match was finely balanced going into the final 20 minutes.

But it was Stirling, for the first time in the half, who mounted a counter-attack to score.

Caleb Korteweg beat the defence to reach a kick through out wide.

The missed conversion left Knights within a score.

But the 24-17 scoreline remained in tact as play reached injury time.

With the hooter gone, Knights kicked a penalty to touch and Anderson forced his way over for the score.

Whyte held his nerve to give Rob Chrystie's team the draw.

Chrystie said: "At half time I asked the players to show me something in the second half.

"We couldn't have been as bad as we'd been in the first half. I was pleased with the way we responded."

Southern Knights: C Whyte, J Jenkins, P Anderson, A Nagle, M Mvelase-Julyan, T Galbraith, M McAndrew, G Shiells, F Renwick, E McQuillin, A Runciman, R Knott, N Irvine-Hess, R Darge & I Moody. Reps: D Redpath, C Young, N Sweeney, S Hutchison, D Taylor.