Haddington v West of Scotland Match Report (L)

                     Haddington 22     v     West of Scotland 13

This was a game both teams could not afford to lose with only five league matches remaining. West came to Neilson Park with their coach, former British Lion, John Beattie predicting that Haddington were possibly favourites for the title, let alone being promoted, however, whether or not he was playing mind games, on this showing from the Reds his prediction might end up being correct.

A bumper crowd turned up to watch with the match being sponsored by the past players. West kicked off playing towards the clubhouse with a strong wind at their backs. They set their stall out early by looking to play the touch lines with their catch and drives from the line-out being a key game plan suited to their big forward pack. This worked to a certain extent although the Reds defended these well with no shortage of size in the home ranks to match what West could offer.

The deadlock was broken after fifteen minutes though when a Haddington lineout went astray, West quickly recycled it and having sucked in the Reds midfield created an overlap to score wide out. The conversion was missed to leave West leading 5 – 0 at this point.

This seemed to sting Haddington and they slowly but surely started to see more of the ball, bringing the midfield runners of Graham Dykes and Donald Snodgrass into play. The Reds were now getting in behind West with some slick handling and offloading before the tackle leading to some concerted pressure on the visiting team. After a succession of quick ruck ball Donald Snodgrass decided his options were limited and he steadied himself to knock over a neat drop goal, although this was only three points, any points into this wind would surely prove decisive. 5 - 3.

Haddington now had their tails up and you could see they had West rattled. The Reds had weathered the early storm and now had the upper hand with Jamie Peters controlling things behind the pack. It was from his quick thinking that led to a tremendous try on the stroke of half time. A short tap penalty from Jamie caught West napping and on his shoulder was Donald Snodgrass to accept his pass to score under the posts. Jamie made no mistake with the conversion to finish the first half 10 – 5 ahead.

The Reds were not going to get carried away at half time because they knew this was a well drilled West side, ably led by ex-British Lion Gordon Bulloch, who were not going to go down without a fight. Things started badly for Haddington when they lost influential forwards, Gary Glass and Quinton Caulfield to injuries within five minutes of the restart. A missed Penalty by the dependable Jamie Peters did nothing to help the nerves either, but not long after a great break by Andy Douglas led to Laurence Lappin rounding it off with a deserved try for the in-form lock. The conversion was missed but Haddington now led 15 – 5.

If Haddington thought they had the game won West had other plans and they started taking the game to the Reds with some strong running and during this time the referee penalised Haddington on numerous occasions to the bewilderment of many watching. From one such incident a quickly taken penalty by West enabled them to score their second try wide out, with the conversion again proving elusive. The score now stood at 15 – 10 with still twenty minutes to play.

West were now looking the stronger and Haddington conceded another penalty in front of the posts after scrambling to organise their defence. West kicked the goal to go into the final ten minutes only two points adrift at 15 – 13.

Haddington seemed to respond again to any questions West asked of their promotion credentials and within a couple of minutes the home sides lead was up to nine points when Andy Douglas spotted a gap and put on the after-burners to score the clinching try and with Jamie Peters conversion the game was now safe at 22 – 13. Haddington tried in vain to get the four-try bonus point but would have accepted the win at the start of the day in any case and will not be too disappointed. This was a great advert for Premier Three rugby with some quality play from both sides, however, Haddington always seemed to provide more of a threat when in possession and have genuine finishers throughout the team. West travelled home empty-handed and can have no real complaints that the better team won on the day. Next weekend Haddington travel to Cumbernauld in the Scottish Cup with confidence high after this result.  

Comments

[Keith Wallace]

Great day, great result but can I take it that Donald is about to give himself a smack in the chops for going over the try line with the ball casually held in one hand?

[Les H]

Think he's obviously used to holding that position and looks comfortable with it !!

[Retro Jordans]

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