London Scottish prove too powerful for Accies at Raeburn Place in the B+I Cup
Round 5 of the British and Irish Cup saw the return fixture against London Scottish at Edinburgh Accies’ Raeburn Place ground. The healthy crowd – including Scottish coach, Scott Johnson – didn’t have to endure the horrendous weather conditions which plagued the London Welsh match and they enjoyed a hard fought contest which the Professional side were favoured to win, in spite of an Accies pack boasting five Edinburgh players ‘on loan’. Against the odds, Accies took an early lead with a brace of penalties from Alex Black, the second of which came after Matt Everard’s sin-binning for persistent break-down infringements. This had followed on from Ross Rennie’s ‘touch down’ which the referee called back for a scrum as he had been barged aside by Rennie in his charge to the line and had obstructed a Scottish player.
A few minutes later, Scottish were on the offensive and a sweeping move from left to right put their No. 14, Mike Doneghan, in for a try. Kicker, James Love, put the conversion over to take the points to 7-6 in favour of the visitors with 23 minutes played. Almost immediately, Accies were pushed back again and this time, it was the turn of the other wing, Pete Homan, to get on the scoreboard with a well worked try on the opposite side of the pitch, the No 11 scrambling through the defence for the score. Another successful kick took the score out to 14-6 for the visitors. By this time the home side were beginning to tire and the visitor’s pack was starting to come to the fore, leading to two penalties before half time, both of which Love slotted home for a 20-6 half time lead.
The away side started the second half the stronger, but it was 17 minutes into the half before they added to their score with an unconverted try from close in, following a line out. The period of play leading up to the score had been dominated by Scottish’s possession and it was only a forward pass and player being stopped inches short which had prevented them from adding to the score earlier in the half. The try they did score was from a penalty awarded following a scrum infringement and a yellow card for Accies’ replacement, Phil Cringle. In fact, scrum infringements by Accies were to dominate the remainder of the half, leading to Rennie being carded at one point and an eventual penalty try after the ref’s patience had been stretched just a little too far.
The final score in the match was 32-6 to the visiting side, but they had been given a run for their money at times. However, the superior teamwork and fitness of the Professional side had told in the long run and they ran out deserving winners in the end. Accies, for their part, were much better, on the whole, than they were against London Welsh in the preceding round at Stockbridge and can hold their heads high after restricting a side vying for Premiership status in England to 32 points.
Images from the match will appear here over the next few days
