Heriot’s 22

Southern Knights 16

David Morrison

at Goldenacre

SOUTHERN’S miserable start to the Super6 continued on Saturday as they came up short yet again at Heriot’s.

Although there were periods of this match, particularly towards the end of each half, where the Knights appeared to be getting on top, mistakes proved costly.

A point picked up by head coach Rob Chrystie.

He said: “Until we cut out the individual errors it is going to be difficult against this level of opposition.

“We are improving slowly, but we can definitely do things better and we will be working to make sure we do.”

The opening minutes pretty much summed up the Knights’ season so far.

A penalty kicked to within 20 metres of the Heriot’s line set up several phases of yard-making play before the ball was moved wide, only for a miss-pass to be intercepted by Rory McMichael who sprinted deep in the Southern half before being caught by Fraser Thomson.

Three or four minutes of fine build up play squandered with a single poor pass.

Heriot’s were much more lethal when they moved into scoring positions.

After several lunges towards the line, Michael Liness barged his way across the line for the opening score.

Ross Jones made it 7-0 with the conversion.

Jason Baggot reduced the margin with a penalty in the 21st minute.

And a kick from a similar range allowed the stand-off to make it 7-6 on the half hour.

Jones was also accurate with the boot a few minutes later.

But Knights were rewarded for their best passage of the game in the lead up to the interval.

Powerful drives from the pack led to Heriot’s being penalised for slowing the ball, and after several penalties and half-a-dozen phases Fraser Renwick crashed over the line.

Although the conversion was missed, Heriot’s had been reduced to 14 players with a yellow being flashed as they conceded the penalties.

But the 11-10 lead wasn’t to last long.

Just three minutes into the second half Cameron Hutchison showed great strength to shrug off two tackles to score.

Jones stroked over the conversion.

Heriot’s, once back to full strength, continued to look the more threatening.

And they were rewarded with a James Couper try following more swift passing from the backs.

The 22-11 lead looked to be enough, but back came the Knights.

With some excellent yard-making drives and impressive ball-retention, Ruaridh Knott powered his way over for a try.

With the clock ticking down the Knights were again in the ascendency, but a couple of loose passes prevented the Heriot’s line being troubled again.

Southern Knights: F Thomson, C Whyte, P Anderson, G Wood, J Jenkins, J Baggott, S Hutchison, S Gunn, F Renwick, E McQuillan, J Head, A Runciman, N Irvine-Hess, H Morris & I Moody. Reps: F Scott, D Redpath, R Knott, T Galbraith, A Nagle & J Henry.