Peeblesshire News | Sport | Excellent Evans edges it for Peebles

Friday, 5th December, 2008

Published: Friday, 16th September, 2005 09:33

Excellent Evans edges it for Peebles

Peebles 9

Royal High Corstorphine 7

When your club sponsor is Tweed Homes Limited, then the business of winning at home by the Tweed would seem an appropriate priority for the first 15.

Yet Peebles, having failed to do so in their Gytes opener against Dunfermline, almost repeated the feat on Saturday against unfancied Royal High Corstorphine.

A premonition of the gritty, error-strewn struggle that would ensue against the street-wise city men may have accounted, not only for club sponsor-ship manager Davey Swan taking off to the south of France, but also for President John Cornwall's efforts to distract fans from the game itself by waxing lyrical in the match programme on the subject of (you better believe it) stuffed orang-utans.

In the event, Adam Clark's men scraped home by three penalties (kicked unusually by 3 different players; Stephen Hutchinson, Conan Sharman and Chris Evans) to a converted RHC try.

`To be truthful about the game,` confessed coach Bruce Macnaughton ,`If we'd lost we couldn't have had any complaints. Yet with the amount of decent ball we had we should have won easily.`

`But our backs were too predictable, too easy for our opponents to defend against. But you've got to remember the nightmare a lot of our players have been through these past two seasons.`

`We've got to get rid of the `We're going to lose again` mindset,` Bruce added, `It puts the boys under a huge amount of pressure. It's something our supporters have to take into account too. It doesn't matter just now how we win: it boosts our confidence when we do. Today we ground out a win and showed terrific fighting spirit.

Early visitors' pressure was repulsed by Craig Borthwick's relieving kick, but though Peebles held sway for the rest of the opening quarter, they failed to turn pressure into points.

Despite a 20th-minute penalty award following the tireless Maciver's line-out win and pulsating driving play by Trevor Keen and Neil Clark in tandem, with Iain Rodger and Peter Whelan supplying the encore, Hutchinson was off-target from a tricky angle.

But the Irish centre succeeded with an easier penalty 7 minutes later - a trifling reward for a sustained spell of home pressure near the enemy line.

Though the yellow-carding of RHC's Sullivan assisted Peebles' cause, they failed to add to their meagre first-half tally.

Despite a Conan Sharman penalty doubling the home lead in 47 minutes and good defensive play from Willie Aitken, Colin Thatcher, Sharman and Callum Anderson as the city men tried to counter, RHC's efforts did meet with success in 53 minutes thanks to Kevin Watters' conversion of a Chris Thompson touch-down. 7-6 to the visitors.

Back came Peebles, but though Scott McCormick and Bruce Hirstwood linked from Ross Neilson's touchline take, Hutchinson failed to profit from the kickable penalty that ensued.

David Harvey's line-out leap and an Adam Clark breenge spawned Anderson's sally down the right and though the flying Calum Farmer was thwarted on the opposite flank, Chris Evans punished an earlier infringement by stroking over the winning penalty in 75 minutes.

Mind you, the outcome would have been different had a late RHC kick at goal succeeded. Instead it sailed harmlessly past the post to heartfelt sighs of relief from the Gytes faithful.

PEEBLES: C.Sharman, C.Anderson, S.Hutchinson and B.Hirstwood,

C.Farmer, C.Borthwick (C.Evans 51) and S.McCormick; A.Brown (C.Thatcher 24, N.Clark 60 T.Keen, N. Clark (W. Aitken 24), D.Harvey and A.Clark (captain), I.Rodger (R.Neilson 54), N. Maciver, P.Whelan.

Tomorrow's action

`With two hard away games to come,` reflected Adam Clark last weekend, `It was crucial we beat RHC.`

And the first of these is tomorrow when Peebles are away to high-flying Hamilton , their hosts smarting over Saturday's defeat at Ellon.

Meanwhile, after Peebles 2nds' massive win in Cupar last weekend, coach Keith Nisbet reckons, `We've only two teams to fear in Division 4 East and we're away to one of them - Kelso-tomorrow. It'll be tough!`

Peebles Colts in contrast are at home to Melrose after Saturday's I5-all draw at Tynedale. Clancy and Geddes had the tries, Charters levelling the scores with literally the last kick of the game.

Elsewhere, there's a new candidate; for the `Best excuse for calling off` award: Posso flyer Alan Smellie. While injecting sheep the other day, he stuck the needle into his own leg instead. It's apparently still sore but at least he's protected against all known sheep diseases.

The original call-off award winner is of course fellow Peebles back Calum Farmer for the excuse, `I hurt my knee while I was getting killed the other night.` (Calum was an extra in the film `The Bruce.”)

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