Peebles 23

Howe Of Fife 5

Allan Beveridge at The Gytes

WITH the weather being dry and the going Good to Soft, Peebles kicked off playing towards the town in the knowledge that a win was necessary.

This game was against a team who had won the first encounter at Cupar, earlier in the season but Peebles were hopefully that they could turn the tables on the team five places above them in the league table.

Two minutes into the game Peebles showed their intentions when Richard Harrison stole the ball against a Howe throw in.

In the first scrum two minutes later Peebles again showed what they were made off when they took the ball against the head.

This strike allowed scrum half and captain, Donald Anderson to break up the blind. He chipped the ball over the head of the Howe left winger into the 22 where the luck of the bounce favoured the full back Graham Thomson and he cleared his lines.

From the resultant lineout however, Peebles won a penalty and Greg Raeburn kicked into the corner. Willie Brown took a good ball to feed Donald Anderson who side stepped and drove for the line. Donald was held up but Ross Brown in close support ripped the ball away from his skipper and drove over for the first try.

Greg Raeburn added the conversion.

Peebles continued to dominate, especially in the scrums.

At one scrum on the Peebles 10m line, Ryan McConnell won his own ball and a drive was on. Kieran Brown picked up and passed through the hands of Donald Anderson, Steven Hamilton and Connor Blyth before the visitors were penalised in front of the posts. Raeburn kicked the three points.

It wasn't long before the Pees added to the score.

Donald Anderson put in a long kick into the Howe 22. It was well fielded by the Howe winger who was caught by Murdo Anderson. Peebles won quick ball which was passed left along the backs to Connor Blyth, who outpaced the defence and ran behind the touch down near the posts making the conversion easy for Greg Raeburn.

Another two Greg Raeburn penalties on the half hour and again on half time saw Peebles going into the interval with a healthy 23-0 lead.

While the second half did not see any more scores from Peebles, it is fair to say they were never in fear of losing this game.

The Peebles forwards continued to dominate the scrums and put in some very impressive drives especially on the opposition ball.

The referee in the second half continued to penalise both teams and it was no surprise that players from each side were yellow carded.

Howe of Fife showed they were still keen to open their account.

As Ryan McConnell and Murdo Anderson were both watching on from the sin bin Howe did score their only try in the 72nd minute when centre Fraser Clark drove over from close range.

Some Peebles supporters left The Gytes disappointed that given their very good display the home team did not manage to win a 'Try' bonus point but, none the less this win took Peebles off the bottom of the league, above Aberdeen and only 2 points behind Kelso.

The Gytes men need some vocal support and must win their league game tomorrow (Saturday) against Musselburgh, kick off 3pm at The Gytes if they are to stand any chance of staying up.

So come along and lets hear you.