Peebles 38

GHK 7

Allan Beveridge

at The Gytes

PEEBLES kicked off 2019 with an uplifting victory to remain in the top half of National Division Two.

Saturday's first-footers at The Gytes, GHK, can feel a little hard done by regarding the score as it was only in the final quarter of the match that the Pees raced clear.

But the win was just reward and payback for the narrow defeat Peebles suffered in Glasgow when they were 29 points down at half time.

GHK started brightly and only the post prevented Kyle Henderson kicking them in front from an early penalty in the first minute.

The only encouragement for the home fans during the opening 10 minutes came from the dominance being shown by the Peebles scrum.

But the flat start was quickly forgotten in the 13th minute as David Collins raced down the right flank to score after good work by Murray Brown and Greg Raeburn.

Raeburn added the conversion.

And midway through the half he added another after David Wills darted over for a try following good build up play by the pack.

The 14-0 lead didn't last long after Murdo Anderson was yellow carded for a high tackle.

It was Henderson who took advantage of the space to race in for the try.

His own conversion made the half time score 14-7.

Peebles upped their game after the interval and scored their third try, again through Wills, just five minutes after the restart

The scrum dominance continued to be a factor, although the continued loss of lineouts was a worry.

Approaching the hour they did win a throw-in after Raeburn had kicked a penalty to the corner.

Rohan Maciver's clean catch allowed Richard Reed to touch down at the back of the drive.

Raeburn made it 26-7 with the conversion.

GHK continued to battle away but there was little hope of a comeback from 26-7 down.

And in the final three minutes Peebles added a further two tries through Scott Stoddart and Kieran Brown for a final score of 38-7.

Saturday's bonus-point victory keeps Lewis Bertram's team hot onto the heels of fourth-placed Dumfries with seven games remaining.

But this week they face high-flying Highland, who are embroiled in the race for the title with Biggar.

Peebles were in a position to beat Highland at the start of the season despite playing for 73 minutes with 14 men after a controversial sending off for Donald Anderson.

The players would appreciate a large turnout of supports as the vocal support does help.

Saturday's game has a 3pm kick off