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Marr Rugby  Fixtures & Results

View from the touchline:

Marr Rugby 18   Irvine RFC 15

Close – too close!

Our nearest neighbours arrived with a clear game plan that almost paid off but had to settle for a losing bonus point when Marr’s efforts finally brought reward from a try scored in the final play of the match.

From the start it was clear that Irvine had learned and much improved from our most recent encounters.  Marr’s attacking opportunities were disrupted with some clever and strong defensive play.   For the first quarter Marr had to rely on Rory McGee’s boot to get the scoreboard going as Irvine’s clever play was ‘pinged’ a number of times and Rory slotted two penalties.  In response Irvine started to take the game to Marr and for a period they were camped inside our twenty-two.  Our defence was given a serious testing but held firm as Irvine repeatedly pounded our line to get the elusive breakthrough.  Their scant reward was a penalty as Marr’s excellent defence infringed and Irvine realising that they couldn’t find a way through opted for a kick at goal which was duly converted.

Marr responded well and lifted the tempo and soon found themselves in Irvine’s twenty-two.    Irvine were resolute in their defence and with thirty minutes played it was only a mistake by their scrum half, who gave away a careless penalty, that allowed Marr to get into a perfect attacking position.  We kicked to the corner and for the second week in a row the catch and drive at the lineout worked a treat, with this time credit for scoring the try going to Kris Kirk, with Rory adding the extra two points.

The first quarter of the second half had no scoring but plenty of ebb and flow. Irvine started to get into their rhythm; they lost a player to injury as did Marr, with Andy Watson being replaced by Gregor Ness.  As we entered the final quarter, Irvine’s scrum half made a fantastic break from just inside their half and looked as though he would be uncatchable as he charged towards the try line. Marr’s back three had other ideas and he was successfully tracked down and caught about 5 metres short.  Irvine continued to press and got their just reward following a series of attacking scrums that crept closer and closer to the Marr try line and finally broke through from a short penalty that was quickly taken by scrum half David Davies who sliced his way over to score.

With only seven minutes remaining, Irvine struck again to take the lead when they elected to kick a penalty attempt to the corner.  From the lineout good ball was fed out to their backs and they made the most of what had been a rare opportunity to show what they could do with the inside centre crossing to score and give Irvine a two point advantage. 

Following the restart Marr suffered a blow when Fraser Grant was given ten minutes to cool his heels and we headed for a nail-biting finale.  The whole Marr side lifted their game with a final effort to offset the fact that they were a man down and facing an uphill struggle against a team who cleverly started to close the game out.  Marr had to be careful not to give away any penalties as they took to the close quarter work to win turnover ball.  As the referee indicated that time was up and we entered the last play our effort paid dividends when we won the ball and from just inside our own half launched an attack that ended with Scott Bickerstaff scoring in the corner.

Four points secured for Marr.

A hard fought and at times frustrating match and perhaps not our best performance but we stuck to our task in the face of some good and clever play.

After three matches we now sit on 10 points alongside Irvine and Allan Glens and are four points behind new league leaders GHK.  We know this league will be tight and every point will be hard earned.  We have two away trips on the bounce, East Kilbride and Stewartry, before our next home match against Allan Glens on 8 October.   Today we had a fair sized support but we need even more to be willing to act as Marr’s extra player.  Our home crowd can have a devastating effect. We know and appreciate good rugby and know the importance of getting behind our team and helping to secure every vital point

The future remains bright...  

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