Penalties prove too much for Peebles

Published 2 Apr 2010 11:31 0 Comments

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Peebles 26 v 28 Jed-Forest

AS the game kicked off, ominous clouds rolled in as the wind increased in strength.

Willie Aitken went off injured after only a few minutes, and shortly after a strong Jed side scored with David Gillespie getting the ball over the line with the help of his forwards.

Despite the wind starting to pick up in his face, number 10 Chris Laidlaw converted it.

Peebles struck back soon after, with good communication between the forwards and backs leading to a break by Dale Clancy, who offloaded to full back Steve Gee who scored the try.

Number 10 Donald Anderson converted this.

Five minutes later, Jed took the lead again, after a series of missed tackles allowed him to run the last ten metres down touch to place the ball on the try line.

The kick was always going to be difficult, but with winds increasing, it was gusted away from the posts to drop 5 metres short to the left of the posts.

Peebles Captain Willie Aitken came back on shortly after this, having his injuries seen to. Jed Forest kept pounding the Peebles defence however, trying to make the game safe before half time.

Within minutes, Donald Anderson managed to break through the Jed Forest defence, and ran past to score under the posts, and then went on to convert his own try to give Peebles a 14-12 advantage.

Both sides tried to get a score that could be decisive before the half time whistle blew, but in the end it was Peebles who came out on top despite Jed Forest's attacks. With five minutes to go, Jed tried to clear their lines with a kick.

Trevor Keen charged this, down, skilfully scooped the ball up, and after some good passing between the forwards and the back, working like a seamless team, Darren Kerr scored five metres from touch, and Donald Anderson converted this to bring Peebles up to 21 points.

Five minutes into the second half Jed Forest got a penalty, just inside the Peebles half. They chose to kick this at goal, and with the wind at their back this was an easy kick which they scored.

Peebles went on the attack, trying to keep their lead, but with the wing blowing the ball about like a leaf, soon Jed Forest had the ball and were pushing back up field. Jed had another penalty to close the gap to 3 points, which was kicked over as easily as the first.

The Jed number 2 was sent off with 2o minutes left for playing on after the referee had blown his whistle, but this didn't stop their number 12 Ewan Scott kicking through yet another penalty to bring the two sides level.

Peebles scored next with Stevie Gee on the wing running into the wind. He then successfully offloaded it in to Donald Sangster who ran in to score. The kick into the wind missed though as it was blown away from the posts.

Jed finally took back the lead for Peebles after almost sixty minutes. A break away try was scored between the posts, and the conversion was scored to take Jed into the lead by 2 points.

Peebles went on the attack one last time, knowing that one score would make the difference.

It had been a well fought game by both sides, but in the end, Jed Forest use of the wind had enabled them to win. Peebles however did manage to get 2 bonus points, one for scoring four tries and one for ending within 7 points of Jed.

This victory means that Jed are now safe from relegation from Scottish Hydro Premier 2 this season.

This article appeared in Peeblesshire News 02 Apr 10

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