Peeblesshire News | Sport | Dan the man again for plucky Peebles

Saturday, 10th January, 2009

Published: Friday, 7th November, 2008 12:30

Dan the man again for plucky Peebles

By Tom Haywood at The Gytes

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Peebles 19 v 16 Aberdeen GSFP

Aberdeen sent a strong side of players to fortress Gytes on Saturday, hoping to inflict the first home loss for Peebles.

Peebles have been playing very well this season, and after just recently being promoted, it’s quite an achievement to be middle placed.

So far Peebles have been unbeaten for their past four home games at the Gytes, but that is without taking into account all of last season’s wins.

Aberdeen were hoping to replicate last week’s win against Hamilton, where they won by a margin of 21 points.

Peebles kicked off the match and before you could blink they got a penalty.

Dan Boughtwood made it look easy as he slotted it through his home posts, as he has done many times before. After this Peebles underestimated Aberdeen, as their forwards’ pick and go tactic allowed them to charge into the Peebles twenty two.

The Peebles defence stayed strong, as it has all season, but they couldn’t stop the former pupils getting a penalty. The tension raised as people realized this was going to be a tight match.

Aberdeen’s record points scorer, Steve Aitken, kicked, but the pressure must have got to him as he fired wide from in front of the posts. After this the Peebles defence didn’t repeat their mistake as they held off the Aberdeen drive.

The defence proved too much for the former pupils and they gave away a penalty which Boughtwood booted clear to relieve the pressure on the Peebles try line.

However, this was soon followed by Peebles giving away another penalty. The Peebles penalty count is very worrying and remains an area of concern, with Aberdeen taking full advantage of it by kicking to within touching distance of the Peebles try line.

At the resulting line out, which Aberdeen won easily, the former pupils passed along the line to their full back, Chris Brown, who raced in to score the try in the eighth minute, after making a break through a gap in Peebles’ stretched defence.

After this the P’s kicked long at the kick off, and after putting a lot of pressure on Aberdeen, Peebles won a penalty. Dan kicked this over like so many others. Peebles had a good opportunity to score when a grubber went through a hole in Aberdeen’s defence and the chase worked perfectly, but this attempt was foiled when Peebles got scrappy in the ruck, and a turn over resulted.

The conditions were very slippery as players skidded in the mud. Peebles got another penalty in the twenty second minute, and the result was as usual, with the ball going through the posts.

Donald Sangster made a brilliant run, but the Aberdeen players were too fast, and he got caught. Shortly after this, in the twenty fifth minute, Aberdeen player S. Warncock, got yellow carded as a result of the Aberdeen players’ persistent infringements.

However, Aberdeen kept pressing with the attack, and picked up lots of momentum. Peebles finally got off the back foot in the thirtieth minute, and managed to push into the Aberdeen half. Both sides made changes after this, refreshing the team with some new legs.

Dan Boughtwood managed to get a break in the last five minutes, which was stopped by a determined Aberdeen tackler, but he failed to roll away, resulting in a penalty and three points for Boughtwood’s efforts. Peebles pushed forward through into injury time, and in the end it paid off as Donald Sangster got the try he missed before. It was converted by Peebles’ kicker, Dan Boughtwood.

At half time it was looking good for Peebles with the score nineteen to eight. Despite this Peebles couldn’t relax. Aberdeen could still win in the second half if they got two converted tries.

At the start of the second half the Aberdeen forwards kept Peebles in their own half, with Peebles only getting out after five minutes of play. After this Peebles made a break, which took them up to the Aberdeen’s five metre line.

After the forwards went through a series of driving rucks and mauls, Peebles just couldn’t get through as Aberdeen took the ball, on a turnover.

They ran up to the half way line, and made a spectacular kick forty metres to the P’s ten metre mark. Peebles won the line out, but for a while the play became very scrappy.

Peebles corrected this, and pressed the attack on Aberdeen in the fiftieth minute. A standstill resulted in play, with neither team gaining the upper hand. Aberdeen were constantly on the attack in the first twenty minutes of the second half, with the forwards pick and go completely relentless.

Aberdeen finally got those desperately needed points through a penalty which their centre successfully kicked. The match went back and forth, with both teams getting frustrated over the lack of opportunities.

Peebles have a worrying amount of penalties that they have given away, with a fair few sin bins to go along with them. In this match Peebles had three yellow cards and with players in the sin bin, it was always going to be difficult. Aberdeen kept pushing into the last minutes, but the Peebles defence remained unbeaten until the last five minutes when, with Willie Aitken and Donald Sangster both in the sin bin, the Peebles defence was breached.

There were too many gaps with only thirteen players, and Aberdeen got a try in injury time to finish the game, taking full advantage of the overstretched defensive line. The final score was nineteen to sixteen.

Peebles have one week till they face their next opposition, Hamilton. In that time they have to improve their line outs, and look to reducing the penalty count. Apart from that Peebles look set to carry on having a good season.

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