Penygraig 7

Peebles 26

Bob Hogarth

at Penygraig Park

A YOUNG Peebles side took to the field on Friday night to play Welsh side Penygraig on the biannual trip south.

In true Scottish fashion, the teams were piped onto the the park by the visiting Tweeddale and Innerleithen pipe band.

And a local Welsh choir sang both national anthems ahead of kick off.

The Peebles team included six first team regulars with the rest coming from the Reds and Colts ranks.

Peebles where under pressure for the first 10 minute of the game but some excellent defence kept the home side out.

However, Penygraig did score the first try of the game when a dropped pass in midfield led to the home side number 10 booting the ball downfield and winning the race for the touch down.

The conversion made it 7-0.

But the rest of the first half belonged to Peebles with Jamie Menzies side stepping in the corner to score the first try, which was excellently converted by Greg Raeburn.

Raeburn scored the next try after he sold a lovely dummy to go in under the post.

His conversion gave the Pees a 14-7 half time advantage.

Peebles were well on top during the second half.

Playing down hill, Buster Davidson and Calum Gray both scored tries, one converted by Greg Raeburn.

There was to be no more scoring and the game finished as it started with the home team applying a lot of pressure, but more excellent defence from the Pees kept them out.

At the final whistle Peebles were comfortably 26-7 to the good.

An evening of excellent hospitality from the home side followed, going on to the wee small hours which helped with the disappointment of hearing on the way down to Wales that the main international match had been cancelled due to the coronavirus

A weary bunch of players and two old diehard former club president arrived home safely on Sunday night having enjoyed a good couple of days of good old fashion club rugby.