Gala 29

Heriot's Blues 21

Bob Sneddon

at Netherdale

GALA made a welcome return to form on Saturday with some eye-catching tries.

Despite plenty vocal encouragement from the good-sized crowd the home team were under pressure from the start.

Although Gala showed some strong defence it took Heriot's only eight minutes to break through.

A penalty line-out led to the ball being passed along the line for Stephen Martin to score.

Scrum half Graham Wilson added the conversion for a 7-0 lead.

Gala rolled up their sleeves, though, and came bouncing back.

Just five minutes after going behind Euan Dods gathered the ball from the back of a rolling maul and he fed Robbie Irvine, who crashed over.

Full back Ross Cooke evened the scores with the conversion.

Gala were enjoying their best spell of the match midway through the first half.

And they took the lead approaching the 20th minute with one of the best scores seen at Netherdale for many a year.

On their own 22 Gala took possession through a quickly taken Dods penalty for Ruairi Howarth to take off.

With Fergus Johnston for company, the ball was passed between them four times to avoid Heriot's tacklers.

It was winger Fergus who touched down.

Cooke gave Gala a 14-7 lead.

Although the Maroons were on the front-foot there wasn't any more scoring until just before half time when prop Marius Tamosaitis picked up and using his considerable strength broke three tackles.

His offload was collected by Jack Easson with the ball being spun to Howarth for another well-worked try.

Cooke made the half-time score 21-7 with the kick.

The second half began as an arm-wrestle which Heriot's eventually won approaching the hour.

From a scrum on the Gala 22 Louis Meynier found enough room to race in.

Wilson made it 21-14 with the conversion.

Gala restored their advantage just five minutes later with Howarth collecting a pass from the rolling maul to score the bonus-point try.

With five minutes remaining Cooke added a penalty to give the home team a clear three-score advantage.

Although Heriot's did add to their tally in injury time with a Dominic Martin converted try, Gala were the team celebrating a few minutes later.

Heriot's return to Netherdale on Saturday for a Scottish Cup quarter-final clash. Kick off is at 3pm.