Colts Match Reports

6/02/10

Biggar 13       Haddington 25                      

The Colts cup run came to an end at The Showfield against a competent Haddington outfit. Straight from the kick-off Haddington took the ball into the Biggar half and after a couple of phases scored in the corner. They increased their lead with a penalty after 10 minutes. The Colts then steadied the ship and started to compete and were rewarded with two converted penalties late in the first half by Andrew Muir after Haddington had killed the ball.

Again at the start of the second half some slack play by Biggar allowed their centre to score after a quick tap penalty. This was followed 5 minutes later by an interception try when Biggar were attacking inside the Haddington 22. Haddington sealed the game with a try from there scrum half of the back of a 5m scrum. Biggar never gave up and came close several times but the Haddington defence stood firm until the final minute. The forwards and backs went through several phases of play and eventually Andrew Gibson crashed in at the corner, with Andrew Muir adding the conversion.

 
23/01/2010
 
Murrayfield Wanderers 0                Biggar 48                              
 
In their first game for 7 weeks, the Colts produced an excellent performance to beat Murrayfield Wanderers by 48 points in the National Cup. This despite being without several of the "older Colts" who are ineligible due to the different age restriction for the Cup. The game was played on the Astroturf pitch which made for a fast open game, but resulted in a few burns on knees and elbows. As expected, the opening ten/fifteen minutes were a bit scrappy, almost like a preseason game.
 
The initial score came from one of these scrappy passages of play, when after several pick and go by the pack, Josh Harvey squeezed in at the corner. The second came soon after when scrum half, David McArthur kicked through from half way, the Biggar chase and support managed to turn over the ball and again after several pick and drives by the forwards, Chris Mulligan drove over the line. Chris got his second on the half hour, when with a penalty in front of the posts the forwards took a quick tap, drove to the line and after setting up good ruck ball he broke from the base of the ruck to score. Just before half time, some good interpassing left Andrew Muir with 10m and a couple of defenders to go before crashing over the line to give Biggar a 26-0 lead at half time
 
Within two minutes of the restart, Biggar were again on the Murrayfield line with a 5m line out. A short ball to the front resulted in good ruck ball set up which Danny McGinn used to dart over the line. Chris Mulligan got his third when Biggar turned over some poor play by the hosts in the middle of the pitch and with quick hands and direct running released Chris for the score. In the final 10 minutes, the game became very loose allowing Andrew Muir his second try and Cammy Jackson the final score with a break through the gap and a sprint in from 30m. Andrew Muir converted three tries and David McArthur one.
 
All in all a good performance by the Colts after such a long lay off, with good performances throughout. Special mention to Andrew Muir who had a tremendous game at prop, destroying the original and replacement Murrayfield props resulting in the scrums being uncontested. Who knows, next year he may be pushing his cousin Colin Arthur for his position?

5/12/09

Boroughmuir 53                    Biggar 3                     

The Colts traveled through to Boroughmuir to take on the current league leaders and came off second best. They played some good rugby often creating several phases of play, but they could not penetrate the strong and well organized Boroughmuir defence. Despite the score line, the team never gave up and continued to tackle until the final whistle. Biggar's only points came from a penalty that was scored by Richard Peacock.

28/11/09

Biggar Colts 5 Currie U-18's 38                                         

Showing their strength in depth, Currie fielded a mature team all of whom are in their second year as a Colts player. Consequently they just had too much power, size and pace for Biggar to contain and they scored 28 points before halftime with no reply from Biggar. However, the Colts stuck at their task and were rewarded with a try early in the second half. From a 5m lineout the ball was tapped down to Andrew Muir coming round to the front to catch and drive over in the corner. The colts kept up their defence putting in some tremendous tackles against Currie and managed to restrict them to only two scores in the second half.

21/11/09

U-18's : Musselburgh 27- Biggar 5

 

This was the first of 5 league games in what constitutes the second half of the U-18's league season. Biggar's place in this half had been in some doubt as they and Perthshire had the same number of league points with the Perth outfit having a better points differential (courtesy of a 70+ points win against Lasswade) and therefore in prime place. Biggar had an outstanding fixture against the same Lasswade XV however and as Lasswade had been unable to field a team last week and a scheduled midweek replay had been impossible due to flooded pitches it looked very much as though Biggar, who were to be awarded a token '28-0 win' over Lasswade, would be 'relegated' to the bottom half with Perthshire who had played and beaten Lasswade earlier in the season in the top half.

A few phone calls later however and Biggar were delighted to learn that the earlier Lasswade results would be declared null and void, this resulting in Biggar going forward at Perthshire's expense. This was undoubtedly the fairest result especially as Biggar had defeated Perth by 40-17 back in September, although it would be important to note that there is no ill-feeling whatsoever toward the Perthshire club.

This result means that Biggar face a testing future this season as they must now face Stirling County, Boroughmuir, Currie and Haddington. To make things more difficult again, all of these games bar that against Currie will be away fixtures!

And so to Saturday!

As had been the case with the 1st XV there were many in the Colts camp who were surprised that this game was to be played. The Musselburgh pitches were indeed unplayable but the game was transferred to Pinkie Park, it being as always in almost perfect condition.

A big bonus for coaches Ian Barr and David Murray was that they had a total of 23 players available for this game although this of course does present other equally difficult selection issues.

In the event Musselburgh began the brightest and managed to go in at half time 10-0 ahead although their try came after a knock-on which was not spotted by the referee.

An early second half score by the home XV this a result of a poor defensive clearance almost put the issue beyond doubt although Biggar did manage a try from David Paterson who benefited from some good support play after a kick ahead.
Musselburgh finished the stronger side however and ran out victors by 27-5.

7/11/09 

Dunfermline 12                     Biggar 21                              

The Colts got back to winning ways with an excellent all round performance with forwards providing a good supply of clean quick ball. It was all very tight for the first 25 minutes with neither team able to penetrate the defences. The deadlock was broken by an individual piece of quick thinking from scrum half David McArthur. He took a quick tap penalty just inside the Dunfermline half, evaded three or four defenders and sprinted all the way to score under the posts. Just before halftime, Ali Dow intercepted a pass at centre and headed for the try line but was tackled by the cover defence, but he offloaded the ball in the tackle to the supporting Danny McGinn who crossed the line for an excellent score.

Early in the second half, Ali Dow had a great man and ball tackle on his opposite number, allowing him to rip the ball and sprint in under the posts from halfway to give Biggar a 21-0 lead after Richard Peacock added his third conversion of the day. Dunfermline never gave up, but the Biggar defence was excellent. With 10 minutes to go Andrew McGregor was harshly sin binned for killing the ball, when he was being held down by the Dunfermline players. From a 5m scrum for Dunfermline, hooker Chris Lawrie took one against the head, but the 8 man Dunfermline scrum pushed the 7 man Biggar scrum back over the try line and the scrum half touched down the ball. A good score in senior rugby, but at Colts level, the scrum is only allowed to be pushed 1.5m. After the game in clubhouse the ref conceded that he had made an error in awarding that try. With their tails up Dunfermline scored another try in the final minute.

24/10/09

Biggar 0 Musselburgh 15

Playing into the strong wind in the first half, the Colts set out to play a containing game against Musselburgh. With almost 30 minutes gone this tactic was working with Biggar only conceding a penalty. However a kick through by Musselburgh was not cleared by Richard Peacock allowing them to score and convert the only try of the first half for a 10-0 lead.

In the second half, the Colts did not do themselves justice, too often taking the wrong option or trying difficult passes in the blustery conditions. Indeed, not only did they not score, but they allowed Musselburgh another score for a 15-0 victory which on another day should have been a victory for Biggar.

10/10/09

Biggar 6         Stirling 36                  

Stirling are one of the new teams in the Edinburgh league this season. They, along with Perthshire and Dunfermline, have opted to play in the EDU set up in an attempt to play more meaningful fixtures than those available in their own Caledonia set up. While Biggar managed a win over Perthshire last month, Stirling showed their class at Hartreemill on Saturday.

The Biggar forwards more than held their own in the tight and the lineout worked particularly well hooker Chris Mulligan finding either Josh Harvey or Angus Thompson with some accurate throwing.

The half time score was 12 - 6 to Stirling with Biggar's points coming from two Richard peacock penalties. In the second half the Stirling backs cut loose with some very good running lines, dummy runs and offloads to rack up 24 unanswered points.

3/10/09

Biggar Colts 5           Boroughmuir Colts 28                     

The Colts competed well for the first half hour, with neither side making any serious try scoring opportunity. However, just before halftime, Boroughmuir scored two converted tries after creating the overlap out wide. After ten minutes in the second half, they scored their third try again through a move out wide. The Colts stuck at it and were rewarded with a try by Andrew Muir after several phases of forward driving. Boroughmuir added one final try for a 28-5 victory.

26/9/09

Perthshire 17  Biggar 40 

The Colts produced their best performance of the season so far with a resounding win away to Perthshire. Unusually for them they started very well putting immediate pressure on the Perthshire line with some aggressive tackling. After five minutes of sustained pressure, scrum-half David McArthur picked the ball from the back of a ruck, chipped over the defence and won the race for the ball for an excellent individual try. However, the Colts allowed Perthshire back into the game with a try less than five minutes later. Biggar then extended their lead through two scores by Richard Peacock, the first coming from a penalty. The second came from excellent pressure on the stand-off by Ali Dow causing him to fumble the ball allowing Richard to collect the ball and sprint in from half way for a try. Again though, they allowed Perthshire a score less than five minutes later to end the half only 15 -12 ahead.

Biggar started the second half the same as the first, harrying the opposition all the time. From a penalty, Ali Dow took a quick tap and ran through the retreating players and chipped over the fullback for Andrew Angus to collect the ball and score. Five minutes later came the try of the match. From a ruck in the middle of the pitch, David McArthur threw a long cut out pass to Richard Peacock who beat six defenders through a combination of side steps, dummies, power and pace to score under the posts. Again, Perthshire scored, but this was to be their last score of the day.

Straight from the kick-off, David McArthur switched the kick-off away from the forwards. The kick was collected by Richard Peacock who spun out of a tackle and fed the ball back inside and through all the backs to the opposite wing where Andrew Angus ran in from the 22 for his second try of the day.

With about twelve minutes remaining, the coach brought on some of the younger Colts and were pleased that the team not only continued to compete but added another six points through two long range penalties from Richard Peacock.

Richard Peacock converted three of the tries.

19/9/09 - Biggar 23       Portobello 3               

The Colts won their first league game with a gritty performance against Portobello. Biggar were very slow to start, with Portobello spending much of the first twenty minutes camped in the Biggar half. However, for all their pressure and possession they only had a solitary penalty to show for it. Biggar got on the scoreboard via a Richard Peacock penalty after Portobello were penalised for entering the ruck from the side. Despite the wet conditions, the Colts had several good handling runs but the final pass was dropped or the Portobello defence stood firm. From one of these breaks, Portobello killed the ball at the ruck, Andrew Muir took a quick tap and breenged over from 5m out for Biggar to lead 8 - 3 at half time.

With Portobello infringing and some off the ball incidents; Biggar upped their game in the second half and scored three unanswered tries. The first came from good clean ball from the forwards after a couple of tiger balls. The ball was fed through all the backs hands to winger Andrew Gibson who outpaced the cover to score in the corner. Ten minutes later the forwards again took the ball to the Portobello line and after two drives, Angus Thompson picked and went from the back of the ruck to drive over the line. It looked as if the backs were going to score through Andrew Angus when he was illegally taken out by the Portobello second row, who was sin binned for 10 minutes. From the penalty, Biggar quickly spun the ball wide beyond the cover for Andrew Angus to score in the corner. Before the restart, the referee called the Portobello captain and their other second row over and after a short discussion the second row was sent off for what we believe was something he said to the referee.

With all of the scores being the corner, no conversions were successful.

 

12/09/09 - Currie 55  Biggar 12                   

Following a poor display last week, Currie came out firing on all cylinders. They are a mature Colts team with the majority of their players in their second Colts season and they used their pace and power with great effect. They scored 29 points in the first half without reply from Biggar.

Biggar started the second half well with Andrew Angus fielding an excellent cross kick from Danny McGinn to score in the corner. Shortly after, the forwards showed excellent ball retention with several rucks and drives which resulted in a try for Cammy Jackson. At 29 -12 things were looking a lot better and another score by Biggar would have really rattled Currie who were starting to argue amongst themselves, however some slack play gifted an easy score for Currie to put the game out of reach.

5/9/09 Biggar 10 Haddington 19                    

In their first league game of the season, the Colts narrowly lost out to a physically dominant Haddington side with their customary huge pack. Biggar started brightly and were camped inside the Haddington 22 for the first 5 minutes when Haddington scored a breakaway try under the posts totally against the run of play. Biggar responded after 20 minutes with a well worked try; good scrum ball was fed out the backs to the wing and then fed back inside to Andrew Gibson who drove over the line but was held up by 3 tacklers. He then showed great strength and awareness to twist and break free to touch down. Unfortunately, Biggar failed to concentrate and conceded a soft try within a couple of minutes.

Haddington scored early in the second half to extend their lead to 14 points, but Biggar dug in and kept plugging away. They scored next with a planned move off the back of the scrum, with inside centre Richard Peacock cutting back against the play to score under the posts. Unfortunately, he forgot that to convert a try the ball has to go over the bar and not under.

This was a good performance by the Colts, who were missing five of their senior players, against one of the top teams in the league and should give them encouragement for the upcoming season.

 

29/8/09 - Biggar 26 Dalziel 0

   The Colts faced Dalziel on Saturday for their final pre-season friendly before the league starts next week. A strong permorance against a good Dalziel side saw them come out victors. Scott Imray was the first on the scoresheet with a first half try. He was then followed in the second half with three tries from Andrew Gibson, Richard Peacock and Danny McGinn. Peacock also added 3 conversions to make the final score 26-0.