Currie coach looking to build on thrashing of Ayr

Mike Entwhistle led the way with a hat-trick of tries, as the Malleny Park men bounced back from three successive losses to post a stylish victory.

The flanker was joined on the score sheet by John Cox, Dougie Fife, Barry Mansfield and Colin Phillips, who marked his first start for the club with the last of his side’s seven scores. Jamie Forbes landed six conversions and a penalty to complete a win over the Premier Cup holders that has moved Currie away from the foot of the RBS Premier Division 1 table.

Donaldson said: “Hopefully we can take some confidence from that result. It was much more like what we are capable of.”

Meanwhile, Heriot’s suffered a second successive defeat when they were on the wrong end of a 14-5 result away to Gala. The Capital outfit’s points came from teenage full back Junior Bulumakau, who touched down for an injury-time try.

In Division Two, Stewart’s Melville extended their unbeaten run to four matches when they got the better of Biggar at Hartreemill. The Inverleith men were made to work hard for their success. Three penalties by Stu Ker gave Stew-Mel a 9-3 interval lead and he booted two more plus the conversion of a try from Donald Sangster to see his side home 22-16 and keep the bandwagon rolling.

Assistant coach Donald Snodgrass reflected the positive mood in the camp, saying: “When you do the basics well, work hard for each other and tackle, the result takes care of itself.”

And he is confident there is still more to come, adding: “The squad is steadily getting better each week. They just need to keep fronting up and they’ll do well.”

Watsonians, with prop Kian Coertze making his 200th appearance for the club, were also on the road, and they too had to scrap all the way before emerging with all five league points from their 30-20 win at West of Scotland.

Brian Walls was the main man for ’Sonians, bagging a brace of tries, and booting a pair of penalties, as well as slotting two conversions. Chris Scott and Tom Hart also touched down for Marcus Di Rollo’s team.

Haddington opened their account in Division Three with a gutsy 34-31 win away to Ardrossan Accies. Kris Paterson, Laurence Lappin, James Ferguson and Neil Watt dotted down for a try apiece, while the latter kicked the rest of the points to seal the victory.

Elsewhere, Lasswade survived a tense encounter, overturning a ten-point deficit at the break to snatch a 32-31 win away to GHA with the winning score coming in the dying moments. Richard Borthwick was the top performer for the Hawthornden men with a personal haul of 22 points from two tries and a series of successful kicks, while Neil Clark also touched down twice.