1st XV report
Marr Rugby’s 1st XV faced an unknown quantity when they met newly promoted champions Musselburgh. With the visitors arriving at Fullarton with an enviable record of 11 competitive wins in a row, having been unbeaten since November 2014, and most recently having added former Premier side Edinburgh Academicals to the list Marr knew they were in for a tough encounter.

With Paul Burke unavailable Conor Bickerstaff (sponsored by CCL Ltd) made his long awaited return to competitive rugby and debut in BT National League 1. The only other change saw Ali Walker being called up to the replacements.

Musselburgh, after their opening win against Edinburgh Accies, arrived brimming with confidence. Fielding a very strong squad, including Scotland age grade and 7s player Rory Watt playing at centre & recent Scotland 7s forward Michael Maltman at 6, amongst an impressive and powerful, strong running set of cleverly technical backs, supported by a big set of forwards who consistently did the simple things well.

Marr took advantage of a first quarter strewn with penalties. Colin Sturgeon slotted home two kicks from penalties conceded in the red zone as Musselburgh infringed to disrupt promising attacks. Musselburgh narrowed the score with a converted penalty. Marr struggled make best use of attacking opportunities with some spilled passes, spoiled moves and aggressive play from Musselburgh.

Approaching the half hour Musselburgh took the ascendency and claimed two tries to open an eleven point advantage.

Just before half-time Marr finally broke through a stubborn defence to open their try score account. During several phases of telling forwards play Ben Johnston broke through and offloaded to Johnny McClung who powered in to score. Musselburgh quickly responded with a penalty to end the half Marr Rugby 11 and Musselburgh 20 points.

During the first fifteen minutes of the second half Marr’s pressure play gained three penalties that were converted to level the score. Marr secured an added advantage as Musselburgh’s influential lock William Fleming was yellow carded. During a Musselburgh attack Colin Sturgeon intercepted a pass and ran in a try from almost 70 metres.

Marr’s player advantage was short lived as within minutes they lost two Conor Bickertsaff and then Colin Sturgeon to yellow cards. In an evenly matched but frenetic final period Musselburgh closed the gap with a try before Marr added another penalty.
As the final stages of the match approached the scoring see-saw continued. With minutes left Musselburgh took advantage of the extra man, levelled with their fourth try and the visitors celebrated what they thought was the match winning score.

From the restart Musselburgh tried to close down the match and initially managed to do so. However Marr’s players kept plugging away and their determination paid off as in the final play they pegged back and pressured Musselburgh deep inside their half. In the final play Marr rampaged forward and regained possession. This allowed a final assault on the visitor’s line. Forward pressure came close but quickly re-cycling allowed Scott Bickerstaff to scorch in to the corner and score a try that was converted and ended the match.

An extremely close contest ended with Marr refusing to accept the match was over after Musselburgh’s final score. Their determination paid off as they played end to end rugby and delivered the winning blow.

Marr’s performance was one that showed continuing improvement. Playing against a very useful side that will continue to cause problems Marr’s squad was able to test the moves required to continue to succeed and enjoy a healthy league position

Marr Man of the match: Ben Johnston (sponsored by Professor Sir James Armour)

Marr Rugby scorers
Tries: Johnny McClung (1), Colin Sturgeon (1) and Scott Bickerstaff (1)
Conversions: Colin Sturgeon (2)
Penalties: Colin Sturgeon (5) and Rory McGee (1)