What A day of rugby it was last Saturday. With many pundits tipping Currie Chieftains to put a halt to Marr’s very impressive home record, gave the home team the impetus to produce easily their best performance of the season.
With a passionate home crowd of 500 souls enjoying a beer and the autumn sunshine the scene was set for a Tennent’s Premiership top of the table cracker.
For the first 15 minutes it was Currie that dominated possession. However in that period their playmaker and former Glasgow Warrior, Gregor Hunter had to refrain from continuing after he misjudged a tackle resulting in concussion. Also in that period Marr scored two fantastic tries.
First try came in 7 minutes when Colin Sturgeon chipped the ball through with Captain Conor Bickerstaff charging through to collect the ball and after a superb diving pass to on-rushing lock Fraser Grant to score in the corner.
The second came when flanker Robert Brown and hooker Ollie Rossi broke down the left hand side from deep inside their own half. The resulting maul had Currie scrambling and not noticing that they had not covered their blind side. However Marr’s full back Greg Montgomery did notice and used his great pace to sprint 30 meters down the wing and score in the corner.
Currie pulled one back at the half hour mark, when after some well worked phases, Mike Vernel drove over from close range to pull Currie back into the match.
Marr had the last say in this keenly contested hard hitting match when it was Marr’s turn to go through many phases and drive deep into the Currie half. Marr’s new centurion Willie Farquhar drove over from several yards out, giving Marr a well deserved 19 points to 8 lead at half time.
The second half kicked off and immediately Marr centres combined a switch move that caught Currie on the hop. It was the premier league’s top scorer Conor Bickerstaff who found the space to dash through to stun Currie.
With Currie now looking shell shocked Marr took full advantage when man of the match Colin Sturgeon bobbed and weaved his way through the Currie defence, to score between the sticks.
Marr now started to show real dominance in the scrum, and it was a move from a scrum that resulted in Bene Grant [who was a menace to Currie all afternoon] broke free on the left and popped a nice pass to the oncoming flying winger Jack Scott to easily score in the corner.
The one sour note for Marr on the day, was the loss of their talisman Scott Bickerstaff when injuring his leg when challenging for a high ball at the 60 minute mark.
Marr then pushed the score board to read 48 point to 8 when stand-off Colin Sturgeon repeated his move form 20 minutes earlier and score a very similar try between the posts.
With ‘job done’ for Marr they now relaxed and allowed Currie to show their class by scoring two tries in the dying minutes from Charlie Brett, and Currie captain Fergus Scott. This I know annoyed Marr coach Craig Redpath and the boys will know all about that come training on Tuesday!
All in all, a marvellous historic win for Marr that takes them four point clear at the top of the Tennent’s Premiership.
Special mention to Colin Sturgeon who was simply superb all Match. Benny Grant, Robert Brown, and Richard Dalgleish also had shouts at the man of the match.
After the match, the Marr team celebrated on the pitch by winning the much coveted Bill McLaren Shield that they will now defend for the next four home games, which will then hopefully allow them to be the sixth team in history to get their name engraved on the historic trophy.
Marr now looks like they are the team to beat in the league. However Currie are a class team and will be there or thereabouts come play-off time.
Next week we face an equally tough task, when we head to the Mansfield Park to take on the Green Machine that being Hawick!
Marr Rugby 1st XV man of the match: Colin Sturgeon (sponsored by Craig Armour)
Marr Rugby 1st XV scorers
Tries: Fraser Grant; Greg Montgomery; Will Farquhar; Conor Bickerstaff; Colin Sturgeon (2) and Jack Scott
Conversions: Colin Sturgeon (5)