Published: Friday, 25th September, 2009 1:00pm

Biggar out of woods after win over jaded Jed-Forest

Biggar 31 v 19 Jed-Forest

A WIN over 'bogey' side Jedforest and a heavy defeat of Hawick by Aberdeen Grammar promoted Biggar RFC to the top of Premier 2 on Saturday - a position which delighted all at Hartreemill, though all were equally aware that this latest scoreline perhaps flattered the Biggar side.

Coach Ants Posa made a few changes to the starting XV this week as he rotates players in order to keep them all focused and involved.

Bob Aitken moved to the bench after a great couple of weeks with Michael McKeand on, while in the pack the injured Fraley Hopa gave way to a second row pairing of Andrew Cairns and Grant Owens with Alan Warnock, Hugh Gibson and Jason Kelly forming the back row.

The game opened at a frantic pace with action a-plenty as the sides fought for control.

Douglas Notman had the first chance to open the scoring and while he missed this he was on target after six minutes.

Jed hooker Michael Weeklie was then sent to the sin-bin after an altercation, and then Biggar stretched their lead courtesy of Notman who kicked another penalty for 6-0.

This six-point cushion was short-lived however as Jed gave note of their potential with a great sweeping three-quarters move which saw ball moved from the left hand side of the pitch via some excellent hands and which ended with fullback Lewis Young just evading the despairing tackle of Kelly to cross in the corner.

The long kick was missed by stand off Ewan Scott.

Biggar still maintained a territorial advantage but their cause was not helped with the sin-binning of Warnock who was the unlucky 'next man' following the referee's warning.

Scott missed the resultant penalty and then Notman missed from a similar award, the kicking duties passing immediately to Chris McKeand who took Biggar ahead at 9-5 and then 12-5 as Jed picked up another yellow, this virtually as Biggar were restored to 15 with the return of Warnock.

Playing towards the clubhouse Jed took early charge of the second half and were unlucky not to get points on the board as Scott missed with a couple of drop goal attempts.

They were rewarded however as centre Gregor Young took full advantage of a partially charged-down kick from Davy Reive.

The ball broke to Jed and with two well-timed passes Young was given sufficient space to run in from 30 metres. Scott's conversion tied the scores at 12-12.

The first Biggar score came as the locals exerted further pressure on the Jed eight at the set piece, ball initially fed left before being swept back right where, after two probing runs by Coubrough and Mikey Rutherford, Simeon James made a deft and ultimately scoring transfer to Chris McKeand.

The fullback ignored his brother on the wing and instead side-stepped his way to the line for the try.

Just seconds after the restart which was well-taken by prop Kevin Anderson who is again this year punching miles above his weight, Biggar launched another attack with C. McKeand once more in the van.

It was he who finished from some 40 metres leaving the Jed defence in his wake with a great turn of pace.

His conversion and a third to a try from prop Scott Cameron put Biggar 34-12 up.

Several at this point felt that this would herald a Jed melt down but they replied with another try of their own, their cause aided in no small part after James was sent to the bin following a high tackle.

This final score was credited to Scott who managed to evade the Biggar defence with a dive to the line.

Biggar - C McKeand; M McKeand, S James, D Notman, S Watson; S Muir (captain), D Reive; K Anderson, M Rutherford, S Cameron, A Cairns, G Owens, H Green, A Warnock, J Kelly. Replacements - C Arthur, C Lavery, S Coubrough and B Aitken.