Marr maintain their unbeaten record-------Just!
It was indeed a wakeup call for Marr when they faced a determined Edinburgh Accies at Fullarton last Saturday.
Marr started well enough by constructing a number of good phases of play that pinned Edinburgh back into their own territory.
However it was Accies that opened the scoring through a well struck penalty by Jamie Loomes from 35 metres out.
Marr lock Ewan Bulger was then yellow carded for a tip tackle and Accies took control but could not break the well organised Marr defence.
On Ewan’s return, Marr then took the lead by driving deep into Accies 22m line, with the ball being picked up at the base of a 5m scrum. It was the Marr’s number 8 Benedict Grant who proved unstoppable, to drive over for the first try.
This evenly balanced match then took a big change when Accies got two forwards yellow carded for not releasing from a tackle and also a late tackle by Declan Dinnen. Now Marr had a chance with their numerical advantage to punish Accies for their misdemeanours, and this they did. Firstly Colin Sturgeon added three points from a penalty, then the Marr’s full back Gregor Ness found himself in an overlap to score an excellent try in the corner.
Half time and Marr were clearly in front 17 points to 3.
The second half started and Marr added another Sturgeon penalty to increase the lead.
Now it was Marr’s turn to get another yellow card. This time an Accies player put a neat grubber kick through the Marr defence and Fraser Grant tap tackled the attacker. The referee had no option but to send Fraser to the naughty step for ten minutes.
Edinburgh Accies now definitely had their tails up and started to pile the pressure on the Marr defence with multiple phases of play that Marr were struggling to deal with. The pressure paid off when Max Love drove over from close range to peg back the Troon teams lead.
Now in the final ten minutes Marr looked just to hold on. Accies continued their fine play and was rewarded eight minutes before the end, with a try from their lock forward Angus Inwood, who drove over from 5 metres out.
Three minutes to go and Edinburgh sniffed victory, when they again scored in the far corner, this time Will Stephen got the touch down. With the score now 20 points all and the convertion pending, the home support held their breath. Loomes struck the ball well, but his shot was slightly off target.
With two minutes left, Marr now woke up and for the first time in the second half put some good driving phases together. Accies defence was tested to the max but just about held out when Marr got over the line but the ball was held up. The referee awarded a 5m scrum to Marr underneath the posts and informed the players that this was the last play. Marr’s pack did their job and drive the Accies pack at good pace, however Marr failed to secure the ball from squirting out the back of the scrum too fast and the Accies scrum half dived on the loose ball to end the match.
In the end maybe a draw was fair to both teams as both teams could have won it.
Marr will look at this as a wakeup call and they now are fully aware that there are no easy matches in the Premiership.
Edinburgh Accies with this team, will be a true force when they have all their homes games still to come.
Teams –

Marr: G Ness; S Bickerstaff, R Dalgleish, C Bickerstaff (captain), J Scott; C Sturgeon, G Montgomery; B Sweet, O Rossi, C Henderson, E Hamilton-Bulger, F Grant, M Pearce, R Brown, B Grant. Subs: J Drummond, W Farquhar, J Harvey, G Baird, I Turaga.

Edinburgh Accies: B Appleson; M Sinclair, R Wilson, N Armstrong, C Ramm; J Loomes, M Love; D Anderson, S Crombie, C Lacour, A Inwood, D Dinnen, P O’Sullivan, J Sole (captain), R Campbell. Subs: R Simpson, C Lamberton, C Thomson, J Bruce, W Stephen.

Referee: F Brown.

Scorers: Marr: Tries: B Grant, G Ness. Cons: C Sturgeon 2. Pens: Sturgeon 2. Edinburgh Accies: Tries: M Love, A Inwood, W Stephen. Con: J Loomes. Pen: Loomes.

Scoring sequence (Marr first): 0-3, 5-3, 7-3, 10-3, 15-3, 17-3 half-time, 20-3, 20-8, 20-10, 20-15, 20-20.

Yellow cards: Marr: E Hamilton-Bulger, F Grant. Edinburgh Accies: S Crombie, D Dinnen.
Man of the match: Marr Conor Bickerstaff. Edinburgh Accies , S Crombie.