Linden need 16 to beat bewildered Broughton

Broughton travelled to Hawick to take on Linden knowing that a 4 try win would see them leap-frog their hosts.  Unfortunately the home side held onto a 27-22 lead to take the points at a sunny Volunteer Park.

The major talking point of the afternoon was the general apathy and poor officiating from the Referee.  Time after time Broughton appeared to be penalised when they seemed to be on the ascendancy and the local referee appeared content to ensure that the points stayed in his home town with several contentious interpretations of the Laws.  The biggest call of the day came in the last play when Broughton drove up to within inches of the Linden line and the Ref was the only man in Hawick to spot a knock on when in fact it so blatantly came off a Broughton leg.  The leg in question being that of Donald Pyper, who goes under the knife later this week to get knee ligament damage corrected which will put him out of action for 9-12 months.

This may of course sound like sour grapes but the gripes would have been the same should we have grabbed the late win.

Broughton didn't help their cause of course by allowing the Linden side to score the opening try which was converted inside the first 5 minutes.  This came strictly against the run of play as Broughton had started the livelier of the two sides in the Hawick sunshine.

The visitors fought back and were duly camped on the Linden line following a line out after a Maddocks grubber.  Linden lost the line out and the trademark rolling maul rumbled over with Pyper coming up from the bottom of the masses with the ball.  Maddocks was unsuccessful with the extras. 7-5.

Within 60 seconds, the hard work of getting points on the board was slightly undone after Trodden appeared to be harshly penalised for handling in the ruck.  The Linden 14 obliged by slotting between the uprights to make it 10-5.

Further light was put between the sides on 25 minutes after a series of missed tackles by the Broughton side allowed Linden to grab another soft try under the posts.  Another conversion and it was now 17-5.

The signs looked ominous on the half hour as Linden stretched to a 24-5 lead with some comedy rugby on show from Broughton on the half way line.  None of the Broughton players apparently wanted the 'hot-tattie' and when the ball, somewhat surprisingly for him, came back to Maddocks, the Welshman's attempted clearance was charged down and collected for a breakaway converted try.

Trodden made up for his earlier misdemeanour by scoring a try of his own on 33 minutes.  Urquhart collected the ball from a half clearance from the Linden stand-off and rumbled on up the touch-line, steaming over a couple of lightweight wingers on his way.  The Colossal Kiwi stood strong long enough to set up Trodden to run in for a well deserved try.  Maddocks split the uprights to take the score to 24-12 at the turnaround.

A rare sight of oranges at half-time were not the only food for thought on the mind of Head Coach Graham Bonner who read the riot act to his lethargic Broughton side.

It took just 5 minutes for the words to turn into points for the Edinburgh side.  Broughton won a scrum against the head in the Linden 22 and as the ball worked it's way back from the subsequent maul, Urquhart popped up to run in unopposed for his 9th try of the season.  Maddocks was just shy of the posts with his attempt from out wide.  24-17.

As per the 1st half, Broughton attempted to press the self-destruct button and some 3 minutes later the local official alleged that a high tackle offence had been committed on the shortest Linden player on the pitch (and he was ducking into a tackle as well!!).  The trusty boot of the winger made it 27-17.

It was game back on with 25 minutes left on the clock when Chris Mollier-Alexander scored a try in his last game for Broughton before heading back to New Zealand.  The Kiwi was the first to react from a ball that popped out of the scrum after Broughton won another against the head.  Maddocks shaved the post with his conversion.  27-22.

With the match entering into the last two minutes of unofficial timekeeping by your scribe, Broughton drove up to within inches of the Linden line through some fantastic forward play.  The Ref appeared to be the only man in Hawick to spot a knock on when in fact it so blatantly came off a Broughton leg.  That was adjudged to be the last play of the game, with the alleged time sitting at 43 minutes played. 

So, the Broughton guys came away with 2 points instead of a possible 5.  It's never easy to play in the Borders but to have to lose in such circumstances makes it so much harder to digest.

On the plus side, thanks must go out to the Linden Committee and their band of helpers for the fine array of food after the game.  Apologies also to Lloyd for making his jeans smell like the Taj Mahal after a fumble by the President.