Marr Rugby’s 2nd XV secured back to back league championship titles with another impressive display, this time away against Greenock RFC. As the season moves to its closing stages Marr’s lead over nearest challengers GHK meant that a victory would see the title race decided and the league trophy would remain at Fullarton.

Playing on a holiday weekend impacted on player and coaching/management and regulars’ availability. It was left to stand-in coach/team manager Ross Campbell to look after a mixed team. Greenock were in a similar, if not worse, predicament and started the match with only 14 on-field players playing a man down for five minutes before a late arrival brought them up to full strength.

The home side had the best of the opening exchanges. Uncharacteristically some of Marr’s players seemed slower than usual to get up to game speed and added to this appeared to be an undue haste in trying to force an opening. Greenock’s defence was tested but held secure and with growing confidence they took the game to Marr and their pressure won a series of penalties from which they kicked for lineouts near the corner. Marr’s defence was tight enough to hold the line and after 10 minutes Greenock opened the scoring with a converted penalty.

After 15 minutes of play Marr finally managed to unlock Greenock’s defence and Ali Walker scored a converted try. The try came after good work in loose play by Ollie Rossi and Gregor Stevenson that opened up the midfield and Ali was released at pace from 25 out. Just before the half hour mark Marr won a rare penalty and kicked to the corner. From the resulting lineout Ruari McMillian crashed through from close range to score in the corner. This score seemed to settle Marr and was followed by much better phases of controlled play.

Gregor Ness, playing at stand-off, and Struan Grant at centre became much more influential in controlling the rest of the match.
Within five minutes after a mazy run from midfield Gregor Ness had added a third try that was converted and closed the scoring for the first half to give Marr an advantage 3 – 19.

For the first ten minutes of the second half Greenock once again threw all they had at Marr but the visitors defence held firm. After withstanding the assault Marr were able to resume the ascendency and started to put some further decent phases of play and possession together. Stretching Greenock’s defence with wide play Danny Clark (sponsored by Callachans Health & Therapy) popped up on the wing as an auxiliary back and scored in the corner. This opened the floodgates. Marr’s forwards and backs started to combine well and playing with increasing power, precision and pace they rattled in a further six tries before the referee’s final whistle brought some respite for Greenock.

Marr Rugby man of the match: Ali Walker (sponsored by Purple and Gold)

Marr scorers:

Tries: Ali Walker (1); Ruari McMillan (1); Gregor Ness (1); Danny Clark (1); Blair Calderwood (1); Struan Grant (1); Grant Millar (1); Graeme Currie (1); William Farquhar (1) and Kris Ferguson (1)
Conversions: Gregor Ness (4) and Ruari McMillian (1)

BT Reserve League West 2 Allan Glen’s RFC 2nd XV – 21 Marr Rugby 3rd XV – 15

Despite losing a close and hard fought match Marr Rugby’s 3rd XV secured a bonus point that meant they retained second spot in their league and could not be overtaken by nearest challengers Annan.
Marr Rugby is one of the few clubs in the country that is able to regularly field three senior sides. Numbers involved in playing continue to increase and the efforts being put in across the board are playing dividends and achieving continuing success.
Marr Rugby’s reward for the season’s achievements is that as well as the 1st XV retaining their position in the second tier of club rugby, the 2nd XV players can now look forward to promotion to National League action in Reserve League 2 where next season they will meet many of the sides that the 1st XV play against.
Marr Rugby’s 3rd XV’s reward is a place in Reserve West 1 where they will take up the berth formally occupied by the 2nd XV.
As the season closes Marr Rugby can again look back on another highly successful season and begin to prepare for the campaign ahead.