Match Report
Marr win against a resilient Selkirk.
Marr maintained their perfect winning ways last Saturday to retain the Bill McLaren Shield, however the score line suggests an easy win, but it was far from that!
Marr started impressively for the first ten minutes with some good phases of play, but it was Selkirk who opened the scoring with a 40 m penalty form their stand-off Aaron McColm.
Shortly after Marr’s high scoring centre Gregor Paxton limped off with a pulled ham string. Gregor Ness took his place, but this forced Craig Redpath to reshuffle his backline.
This proved not to be a problem as Marr drove towards the Selkirk line. The ball eventually found Bene Grant who drew two defenders and off loaded a great pass to Richard Dalgleish, who quickly stepped inside his opposite number on the wing, to score a fine try in the corner.
Marr now with their tails up, added a second after some good thrusts by the forwards testing the Selkirk defence to the maximum, the ball eventually came to Fraser Grant who was too powerful for the two Selkirk defenders that tried to stop him, touching down close to the posts.
Marr now looked to close the match out but failed on a good couple of chances, when the final pass did not go to hand.
Selkirk still looked like a dangerous team with themselves now forcing Marr onto the back foot deep inside their 22m.
This pressure proved too much for Marr and after a handling error, Selkirk’s Josh Welsh took full advantage to pick up and dash through from 20 meters out. Selkirk were definitely back in this match.
Half time Marr 12 Selkirk 10.
The second half started with both teams knowing that the next team to score would have a huge advantage. Marr and Selkirk both looked tense, with defences now completely on top.
It was going to take a moment of magic to split either defence. That moment came, with a simply brilliant grubber kick from Colin Sturgeon, that caught Selkirk’s tight defence out. It was Marr’s stand in full back Gregor Ness who had the vision and pace to sprint through and dive on the ball to score the try of the match.
Selkirk now put the Marr’s defence to the test and finally got a break when Calvin Henderson received a yellow card for a high tackle but this was more an accumulation of infringements near the home team’s line.
With Selkirk now looking to come back into the match with their extra man, it was the complete opposite that happened. Marr with a forward down, put together some great penetrating phases that eventually came out to Captain Conor Bickerstaff who picked a great line to leave the Selkirk defence looking at each other.
With this highly ferociously contested game now coming to an end, Marr put the icing on the cake when Benedict Grant did a run around the back of the Marr lineout and create a space for Olli Rossi to power over from 10m out. A try straight form the training ground.
The biggest cheer of the match came when Marr’s youngster, Jamie Drummond took an off load from Conor Bickerstaff to score deep into injury time.
Final Score Marr 38 Selkirk 13
In summary this was another fine bonus point win for Marr. However Selkirk have been the most complete team that we have faced this year. They were fit and well-disciplined and have got a defence to be proud of. Marr will face a tough test when they travel to Selkirk next January.
Teams –

Marr: G Montgomery, R Dalgleish, G Paxton, C Bickerstaff, I Turaga; C Sturgeon, J Preston; B Sweet, O Rossi, C Henderson, E Bulger, F Grant, M Pearce, B Grant, R Brown. Replacements: J Drummond, W Farquhar, J Harvey, C Cunningham, G Ness.

Selkirk: H Bithray, F Anderson, J Wlesh, C Anderson, R Cottrell; A McColm, L Merolie; L Pettie, J Bett, B Riddell, A Mackay, P Forrest, D Nichol, E MacDougall, S McClymont. Replacements: D Alexander, M Waldron, S Rankin, H Borthwick, L Berte.

Referee: Michael Todd.

Scorers –

Marr: Tries: R Dalgleish, F Grant, G Ness, C Bickerstaff, O Rossi, J Drummond; Cons: C Sturgeon 4.

Selkirk: Try: J Welsh; Cons: A McColm; Pens: McColm 2.

Man of the Match: Marr captain Conor Bickerstaff led from the front with a genuine captain’s performance in both attack and defence.