Corstorphine RFC v Dunbar RFC
Saturday 14th December 2024
Match Report by Finlay Graham
Corstorphine 21 Dunbar 19
Dunbar travelled to play Corstorphine in their final league match of 2024. The match was switched to Forrester RFC due to a clash with the final of the Arnold Clark Women’s Premiership.
The opening eight minutes saw both teams enjoy phases of possession and a lot of attritional play on display with both teams cancelling each other out. The home team were first to really threaten with a lineout ten yards from the visitors tryline. An offside penalty after ten minutes gave the home side their first opportunity for points unfortunately the kick drifted wide. True to recent form Dunbar run from deep only for the move to be halted by a forward pass on the halfway line.
Corstorphine took advantage when a knock on was missed, and they tested the visitors defence who were equal to the task, and they eventually cleared their line.
The home side finally opened their account after fifteen minutes converting a penalty which certainly had the away touchline support aghast at the decision.
This reverse clearly had a galvanising effect on the visitors as straight from the kick-off the forwards regained possession and after three quick phases of play the ball was moved to Gregor Ronan who timed his pass perfectly allowing Mike Hall to score in the corner. The difficult conversion was missed but Dunbar led 5 – 3.
The visitors began to test the home defence and after twenty-five minutes an excellent lineout take by Ben Miller the ball was moved quickly to Mike Hall who put Rory Dowding in the clear to beat his opposite number and then returned the favour with a pass inside to the supporting Mike Hall who strolled over under the posts. Gregr Ronan duly added the conversion.
The visitors were clearly incurring the wrath of the referee and after two penalties the home pack took advantage to drive over after securing the lineout for a well-worked try. A successful conversion reduced Dunbar’s lead to just two points.
To their credit the visitors again secured possession from a lineout and Lochie Milne broke clear and with a delicate offload gave Mike Hall the room to time his own pass to winger Rory Dowding who strolled over by the posts. Gregor Ronan converted, and Dunbar led by nine points.
With half time approaching the referee again penalised Dunbar and a grateful home side were successful in converting the kick to make the score 13 – 19.
The second half began and an early yellow card for Struan Lugton for dissent gave the early impetus to the home side. With a man advantage the home side secured several scrummage penalties which eventually resulted in a pushover try after fifty minutes to make it a one-point game.
Straight from the kick off Corstorphine kicked deep, and Kyle Gallagher then gathered possession and broke through the defence with a great run he then offloaded to Sandy Graham who set it up to be recycled only for the ball to be frustratingly knocked on.
For whatever reason, the referee decided he was in charge of the yellow card timekeeping and the visiting players and supporters were clearly aggrieved that a total of seventeen minutes elapsed before Struan Lugton was allowed to re-enter the fray.
The game stagnated into an arm wrestle of a match with both teams searching for what would be a decisive score and after what appeared a perfectly well-executed tackle the referee saw differently and awarded a penalty which the grateful home centre sent between the posts to regain the lead.
Disappointingly for the visitors the referee blew for full time afterwards and Dunbar’s proud unbeaten league record had been taken by a jubilant home team.
Whilst it was a loss Dunbar put so much into the game and could have been victorious. They still however have a healthy league points total with a very impressive points differential as well.
The players and coaches can now enjoy a well-deserved break from games with Penicuik their next opponents at Hallhill in the New Year.