Peebles 57

Falkirk 10

Allan Beveridge

at The Gytes

REVENGE is certainly sweet when it comes to rugby.

Peebles were beaten at Falkirk in the first half of the season when they ‘did not get off the bus’ to produce one of their worst displays.

But bringing down the curtain at The Gytes on Saturday, they more than made amends by running in nine tries and kicking six conversions.

And it could easily have been more as there were several opportunities wasted in the opening half hour with dropped last passes.

Peebles kicked off into the sun and the supporters put the poor handling down to that glaring globe in the sky.

It was clear from the first scrum that the visiting front row, and their big loose head prop in particular, were going to be in for a miserable afternoon at the hands of Neil Hogarth, Ryan Stewart and Jamie Menzies.

When the first try did eventually arrive it was a good one.

Stewart looped round winger Scott Stoddart and ran 45 metres up the left wing to touch down in the corner.

The second try followed shortly after and it was another solo effort this time from scrum half Robert Harrison.

Ross Brown won a line out on half way, passing to Harrison who stepped inside the visitors' back row and out paced the cover defence to score again in the corner.

Before half time Peebles added a third when Stoddart scored the first of his hat trick after good work by Donald Anderson and David Collins.

Anderson added the conversion for a 17-0 half-time lead.

When Stewart scored the bonus point try shortly after the restart Peebles appeared to relax and they played much better rugby.

Anderson added the conversion and one minute later Stoddart added his second try with a run from 60 metres.

The conversion made it 31-0.

Peebles continued to dominate this game both in the tight and in the loose.

And with the sun at their backs the whole team continued to handle the ball better.

Stoddart completed his hat trick of tries with his third in the 65th minute.

It wasn't long until Stewart followed him over the line for his third as well.

The visitors' points came from tries from Ross Rennie and Calum Cassels.

Before the end of the game, though, Ross Brown and Stuart Hunter both added tries for Peebles.

All in all a satisfactory was to finish a league campaign with a 50 point haul and claim fifth place in the league.