Saturday, 6th February 2010
Kick-Off
Marr travelled north on Saturday to the capital to take on RHC Cougars in the preliminary round of the Scottish Hydro National Shield. The Cougars ply their trade in National League one two leagues higher than Marr and currently sit eighth in the table having picked up five wins out of a possible fourteen. Their last game came on the 23rd of January when they succumbed to a 21-10 loss at Linlithgow; Marr fell to a 7-0 loss in their last outing away to Gordonians. Marr were able to welcome back stand off Rory McGee who has been out for several weeks with a knee injury. Marr also travelled with a couple of second fifteen players in their match day 19, second row Shawn Fallows and prop Mark Allison stepped up to take places on the bench along side second fifteen captain Mark Underwood.
The Cougars started brightly but it was Marr who struck first as Rory McGee slotted a penalty with ease to give Marr a 0-3 lead inside 15 minutes. The Cougars then started to assert their dominance and after a period of sustained pressure managed to take the lead through a penalty try. Marr were judged to have killed the ball during a five metre scrum which also led to Marr flanker Don Morrison being given ten minutes in the sin bin.
RHC then started to dominate and in the thirtieth minute ran in another try after their centre fielded the ball after a Marr attack and broke through the Marr line before being brought down, but quick ball allowed the Edinburgh side to cross the Marr try line for the second time, the conversion was added to give the Cougars a 14-3 lead.
Both teams traded penalties before the half time interval taking the half time score to 17-6.
The second half saw the Cougars increase their lead in the early stages to take the score to 24-6. Marr however struck back in the fiftieth minute as some clever play behind the Marr scrum created the space for Andrew Gault to make the break and score to bring Marr back into the match and take the score to 24-13 after Rory McGee added the conversion.
Marr were next to score but had to wait until the twentieth minute to make the breakthrough as Kris Kirk crossed the line to tale the score to 24-18. Marr continued to press for the last ten minutes but were unable to make the break through and The Cougars ran out winners 24-18.
Marr played well and despite the final score can feel proud of pushing their higher placed opposition all the way. The Cougars larger pack certainly played its part causing Marr problems all day but Marr still had some commendable performances in the pack with Don Morrison in particular playing well in the backs Rory McGee and Andrew Gault both put in good performances. Scrum half Andrew Bate made some good breaks as did centre Shawn Little. Shawn Fallows and Mark Allison both made their debuts for the first fifteen both coming on in the second half.
Next week sees the second fifteen travel to Newton Stewart in a rescheduled league game, the first fifteen have no game. Training continues on Tuesday and Thursday nights at 7pm and anyone wishing to play is welcome to come along and join in.
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