Rugby round-up: Currie stole victory from Watsonians, says skipper

Currie skipper Ross Weston was honest in his assessment of Saturday's nerve jangling 23-22 BT Premiership win over Watsonians at Malleny Park.
Watsonians' Rory Drummond is tackled by Currie captain Ross Weston.   Picture: Ian RutherfordWatsonians' Rory Drummond is tackled by Currie captain Ross Weston.   Picture: Ian Rutherford
Watsonians' Rory Drummond is tackled by Currie captain Ross Weston. Picture: Ian Rutherford

Reflecting on a performance that ultimately produced a result which has edged Currie closer to securing a play-off berth, a relieved Weston said: “That was the definition of winning ugly. There were so many errors. All credit to Watsonians, I thought they probably deserved the win. We stole that one, if I’m honest. But we achieved what we wanted to do and that was to get the win and keep the momentum for a top-four place going.”

It was a particularly galling outcome for the opponents, who had fought back from 20-0 down to lead entering the closing minutes of an intense encounter, only to have their hopes dashed when Currie scored against the run of play.

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“That’s two weeks in a row – two sickeners,” said Watsonians coach Marcus Di Rollo, alluding to the previous week’s last-minute loss against Glasgow Hawks. He again pinpointed a slow start as being the main contributor to the outcome. “It just seems to take us ten minutes or 20 minutes to get into it. And when we get into it we are a good side and we could put anyone under. But we just need to focus in on the first 10-15 minutes.”

Currie had two penalties by Glasgow Warriors pro Rory Clegg to show for a composed start to the encounter and he added the conversion after a try from Ben Robbins, created by Clegg, as well as adding the extras after his Glasgow colleague Ratu Tagive touched down.

Watsonians were back in the game by half-time, after Sean Crombie dotted down and Andrew Chalmers joined him on the score sheet with a self-converted try. Chalmers kicked a penalty shortly after the restart and nudged the visitors into the lead when he converted after Calum Eastwood forced his way over.

Despite sustained pressure by the visitors, they failed to add to their tally and Currie snatched the win when Clegg calmly stroked over a penalty two minutes from full-time. Despite his players having suffered two body blows in successive weeks, Di Rollo sees reasons for optimism as his men scrap for survival over the coming four weeks, although he knows victories are vital.

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“We played with a lot of character. We’re playing good rugby in patches. You can take away a lot of positives but wins would be better,” he added. “If we play with the same sort of enthusiasm and cut the errors, we can compete with any team in the league.”

His Currie counterpart Ben Cairns was unflinching in his summing up. “We got away with it. We didn’t deserve to win that game,” he said. “That’s by far the worst performance we’ve put on and won a game. At the same time, we’ve had a couple of really good performances when we haven’t won the game. I know that if we play at our best we will give every team a run for their money.”

Despite the coach being unhappy with the nature of the win, the result has taken Currie into the top four at the expense of their next opponents, Heriot’s, who went down 19-14 away to Glasgow Hawks.

The Goldenacre side led 11-10 at half-time, courtesy of two Alex Hagart penalties and a Charlie Simpson try. A third penalty by Hagart nudged the champions further ahead before three more penalties for the hosts secured the win and saw Heriot’s slip to fifth in the table.

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Boroughmuir moved up to seventh in the table with a bonus-point win over fellow strugglers Hawick. Aubrey Mncube bagged a double and there was also a try apiece for Craig Keddie and Greg Cannie, while Chris Laidlaw landed two conversions and Dougie Steele had one to see the Meggetland men home 26-21.

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