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Broughton will join the big guns in the hat
later this week for the National Cup Round 4 draw after a 15-07 win away to
North Berwick on Saturday.
It was a day dominated by the Broughton centre
partnership of Scott Fairlie and Neil Matthews and it was an inspirational piece
of individual brilliance by Matthews on 23 minutes that set up the chance of a
potential glamour tie at Wardie in the next round.
Broughton arrived at North Berwick with only 16
fit players for this 3rd Round tie, with the home side keen to avenge the League
defeat at Wardie last month. Out were 1st XV regulars Nicolson, Baxter,
McFarlane, Pannell, Kelly, Wilson, Williams for this match, with Broughton keen
to use the same attitude which had Champions elect Lasswade on the ropes last
week. It was almost 15 men who started the warm up as Mark Clews was
delayed in Town. Rumours that he was getting his moneys worth at the
Seabird Centre on a luvvy-duvvy trip with his good lady are still being
investigated!!
It was a bitterly cold day in the shadow of two
of North Berwick's finest landmarks, North Berwick Law and Somerfield but it was
the hosts who were caught cold from the start and within 2 minutes Referee John
Evans awarded Broughton a penalty for a North Berwick tackler not rolling away
at the maul. Maddocks duly obliged with his boot to get the travelling
Edinburghers on the scoreboard. 00-03.
The opening quarter of the match went without
much incident with both teams struggling to make much progress on the heavy
underfoot conditions however the match official gave North Berwick a perfect
opportunity to claw back the deficit with a penalty just outside the Broughton
22. The uprights kept Broughton ahead as the ball struck the right hand
post and the danger was cleared.
Within minutes, Broughton found themselves on
the attack and it was a piece of individual brilliance seldom seen at the lower
levels which saw the opening try of the afternoon. Arrandale, commanding
the back of the rucks like a man possessed, attempted to pick out Maddocks to
set up a back move, however the pass was somewhat astray. Matthews however
was aware of the grass cutter pass and collected the ball at his shoelaces.
With a change of foot, he took it for a run up the touchline and with a deft
hand-off and tip-toe balance, he went over the North Berwick line for the try.
Maddocks failed with the extras. 00-08.
Matthews was in the thick of the action again
on the hour mark, but this time he was penalised for holding on after he was
exposed whilst trying to clear the lines after a promising North Berwick break.
The resultant kick certainly had the distance unfortunately for the home side it
crept under the bar and the score at half-time remained at North Berwick 00-08
Broughton.
Man of the Match Fairlie, in only his second
start for the Wardie outfit, seldom put a foot wrong and was unlucky not to get
on the score sheet himself in the 50th minute when he couldn't gather an
interception attempt inside the North Berwick half.
Broughton all but sealed their passage to Round
4 with 10 minutes to go. A grubber kick through by Maddocks caused all
sorts of problems for the North Berwick full back who knocked-on just outside
his own line. From the scrum restart, the instrumental Urqhuart peeled and
his tremendous upper body strength allowed him to stay upright long enough to
present the ball to the on-rushing Mollier-Alexander to run in under the posts
for his first try this season. Maddocks kicked from bang in front to
make it North Berwick 00-15 Broughton.
With time running out, North Berwick tried to
up the ante and eventually their patience paid off with a try following a quick
break from midfield after a Broughton transgression spotted by the over-zealous
man in the middle. A maul set up in front of the posts and a scrum-capped
forward bundled over. The conversion was successful, however it still meant that
the home side needed to score twice to steal the victory.
Even with the match official endeavouring to
wear out his pea from the whistle, including sending try scorer Mollier-Alexander
to the bin on 79 minutes for a contentious 'dump tackle' decision (despite the
North Berwick Captain trying to step in to tell the referee that there was
nothing the matter with the tackle and he should stay on the pitch), his stretch
of at least a dozen penalty awards could not get the home side past the
Broughton defence.
Assistant Coach Rab Wood was happy to come away
from the banana skin that is frequently the case at the Recreation Ground. "We can be satisfied with a win, although once
again we never converted our dominance into points. There is no doubt that the
forwards were the match winners with a superb show of control. P.C. Cox put in a great
shift and Duncan's place will by no means be certain when he returns. The back
row were outstanding as a unit and Sandy dominated the breakdown situations."
Wood was also delighted with work put in behind
pack, "I
also thought Dan had his best game for a while, it's amazing what you can do
when you just play and not grump all the time! The biggest bonus was the
performance of Scott at outside centre, he never missed a tackle and made life
much easier for Neil who benefited by having someone outside him that could
take the ball and make some use of it. On the whole we done little wrong
but we definitely have to play much smarter when we are in the red zone".
So, it's the time for the Premiership Clubs to
enter the fray in Round 4 and if Broughton land one of the top 32 seeds, the
match will automatically take place at Wardie on 20th January. However,
there are still 30 Clubs in the Competition from the Nationals & Regionals
including old friends Forrester & Hawick YM who punched above their weight
sending National 1 sides Kilmarnock and East Kilbride crashing out respectively.
Also a possibility is the daunting trip to Orkney who also knocked out National
1 opposition, defeating outfit Hillfoots 16-12.
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