Marr Rugby round-up: Senior results 29 September 2018 – Tom Steven ‘hat-trick’ helps Marr Rugby 1s cruise to bonus point win while 2s run out second against GHA

Marr Rugby round-up: Senior results 29 September 2018 – Tom Steven ‘hat-trick’ helps Marr Rugby 1s cruise to bonus point win while 2s run out second against GHA

Tennent's NL1: Marr Rugby 45 – Kelso RFC 12
Tennent’s Reserve NL1: Marr Rugby 19 – GHA RFC 31

See Marr Rugby 1st XV match photos here and better ones courtesy of Jon Pearce here

Match report (by Stephen Allam}
Saturday 29th September Venue Fullarton

MARR SECURES BONUS POINT WIN VERSUS KELSO

MATCH SPONSOR ARNOLD CLARK [KILMARNOCK]

Marr Rugby welcomed Kelso to a breezy Fullarton last Saturday with a near unchanged 1st XV with the only change being Mackenzie Pearce returning from injury replacing last week’s man of the match Callum Steel.

The match kicked off with Kelso dominant in territory for the first 20 minutes with Marr struggling to find some consistency. It took until the 29th minute before Marr’s forwards rumbled up the park and after many phases hooker Ollie Rossi managed to drive over the Kelso line.

Marr had now woken up and just two minutes later Richard Dalgleish picked up a loose ball in mid field , broke through a couple of tackles and with a fine off load to Gregor Paxton allowed his fellow centre to show great pace to score Marr’s second try.

The first half ended with Mackenzie Pearce breaking a tackle and passing to Marr’s powerful winger Tom Steven to flatten three defenders on his way to score a fine try under the posts.

The second half started the way the first half had ended with Tom Steven bursting through yet more defenders to score his second try. It did not take long for Tom Steven to secure his hat trick after some good driving play from Ben Johnson and Fraser Grant.

The game then suddenly changed direction after Captain Conor Bickerstaff was shown a yellow card for an illegal tackle allowing Kelso to come back into the match with a fine try from Aaron Jackson running in from 30 metres for Kelso’s first try.

Marr were dealt a further blow when their number 8 Ross Miller was also shown a yellow card after the touch judge had noticed another illegal tackle . Marr with only 13 players were now on the defensive.

Kelso soon struck again after some dominant forward play, the ball was flung wide and with Marr’s defence somewhat thin on the ground they were unable to stop Kelso’s Craig Dodds scoring under the posts.

Marr’s defence managed to limit the damage for the next 10 minutes and were soon back to full strength.

Marr’s scrum now dominant won a few penalties near the Kelso line and eventually replacement hooker Stephen Adair drove across the line to score Marr’s sixth try.

The game ended with one final Marr try after man of the match Tom Steven gave his captain a fine pass allowing Conor to beat the last defender and score in the corner.

FINAL SCORE MARR 45 KELSO 12

Marr Rugby 1st XV man of the match - Tom Steven (sponsored by Craig Armour)

Marr Rugby 1st XV scorers
Tries: Ollie Rossi; Gregor Paxton; Tom Steven (3); Stephen Adair and Conor Bickerstaff
Conversions: Liam Mcloughlin (5)

Marr Rugby next fixtures – 6.10.18
1s – Away v Aberdeen Grammar
2s – Away v Heriot’s FC
3s – Home v Dumfries 2s