Marr’s defence wins the day!
The conditions at Malleny Park were quite simply atrocious. With freezing rain driving hard down the park form left to right. It was not a day to be a back!
Currie Chieftains playing into the gale started the strongest and piled the pressure on Marr. They manufactured two clear scoring passes, however both were fumbled due to the tricky windy wet conditions. The scoring was opened by Gregor Hunter who notched a penalty on Marr’s 22m line.
Marr soon recovered from the initial onslaught and drove into the Chieftains half. After several driving phases Marr quickly spun the ball out the three quarters, creating a slick overlap for Marr’s speedy winger Richard Dalgleish to run in from 30 metres out. Colin Sturgeon duly obliged by adding the extra points.
The remainder of the first half was mainly Currie, who continued to dominate possession and territory. However as soon as they neared the Marr line the mistakes became more noticeable.
With a few minutes left in the first half, big Bene Grant broke free from a tackle and thundered up the park. Realising he was going to be tackled popped the ball to the onrushing Conor Bickerstaff who made further ground. From the resulting maul when Conor got tackled, Marr managed to create the platform for the Marr hooker Oli Rossi to be driven over the Currie line to score a try and give Marr a 14 point to 3 lead at half time.
Marr now knew the second half performance was going to have to be something special to stop Currie from using the wind and the huge territorial advantage that would surely result from that fact.
Early on in the second half Marr did manage to pressurise the Currie line but 2 metres out the referee blew his whistle for Marr holding on for too long.
After that it was all Currie that dominated all the territory. Marr realised that kicking out from defence was pointless and decided to play keep ball and drive their way forward at every opportunity.
Marr now with two of their props off the field were really under pressure in the scrums and with Marr’s lineout expert Ewan Bulger also off injured, their set piece would not function as normal.
Currie now threw everything at Marr but the Marr defence stuck to their task with magnificent vigour and determination, continually turning the ball over from some great counter rucking.
With five minutes left on the clock Marr received a massive blow when their number 8 Bene Grant was yellow carded for offside near his own line.
This blow however seemed to spur the remaining 14 men to continue to hit every tackle even harder than before and managed to hold Currie out.
The final whistle was welcome relief for Marr. The forwards were simply brilliant in defence and the backs just about managed to keep hypothermia at bay. Although winger Jack Scott was still shaking 90 minutes after the game!
This game will remain long in the memory as quite simply the best defensive performance that Marr has ever achieved. It gives Marr a 5 point cushion over their nearest rivals Currie, which may well prove vital at the end of the season.
Man of the match was Fraser Grant, who was quite simply relentless in his big hits against a powerful Currie pack.
However I have to say all the forwards were quite simply very impressive.
Teams –
Currie Chieftains: J McCaig; C Meager (Patterson 38), S Hamilton, A Hall, A MacLean; G Hunter, G Christie; G Christie, F Scott (Edwards 64), R Patterson (Argiro 25), M Poole (Ferguson 75), M Vernel, R Vucago, W Nelson, R Davies.
Marr: G Montgomery; J Scott, G Paxton,C Bickerstaff, R Dalgleish; C Sturgeon, J Preston; W Farquhar (Henderson 37) (Muir 70), O Rossi, C Henderson (Sweet 25), E Hamilton, A Fraser Grant, M Pearce, R Brown, B Grant.
Referee: Keith Allen.
Scorers –
Currie Chieftains: Pen: Hunter
Marr: Tries: Dalgleish, Rossi; Cons: Sturgeon 2.
Scoring sequence (Currie Chieftains first): 0-0, 3-0, 3-7, 3-14 (h-t).
Yellow cards –
Currie Chieftains: Scott
Marr: Bene Grant