Club rugby wrap: Currie skipper wants more despite another fine win

Currie Chieftains skipper Robbie Nelson wants his team to be more clinical, despite another impressive performance that confirmed the Malleny Park side is hitting form as the regular BT Premiership programme moves towards an engrossing close

Max McFarland of Currie and Grant McConnell of Boroughmuir clash at Malleny Park. Pic: Neil Hanna

“It’s always quite tough after the break to get going again. It’s a good start to the year and we have Melrose at home next so we will build towards that,” he said of the 41-7 win over Boroughmuir in Saturday’s rearranged fixture. “First half in particular we left a lot of points out there so we’ll need to work on that. Obviously we have to take every chance we get against a team like Melrose so that will be the big push this week.”

The centre was among the scorers as Chieftains resumed where they had finished before the festive break with a result that has moved them into second place, while Muir occupy the basement spot in the table and face a survival battle.

An early try by Mike Vernel was converted by Jamie Forbes, who added a penalty before Grant McConnell responded for Muir with a try following an intelligent cross-kick by Chris Laidlaw, who added the conversion.

By half time, the hosts had added a penalty try and they steadily boosted their points tally after the restart with further scores from Richie Vernon, Nelson, Forbes and Luke Crosbie, two of which were converted by Forbes.

The result saw Chieftains leapfrog Heriot’s, who were on the wrong end of a 24-23 result away to a resurgent Hawick side whose victory has taken them above Muir.

After trailing 17-3 at half time, with Michael Maltman having been red-carded for punching, the Goldenacre outfit struck back to lead through two penalties by Ross Jones and converted tries from Martin Hughes and Rory Carmichael. However, Hawick snatched the victory when Edinburgh professional Darcy Graham darted in for a converted score.

The next task for Heriot’s as they seek to remain on track for a home play-off is a home contest against Watsonians, who boosted their bid for a top four finish with a 64-5 mauling of Marr at Myreside that produced ten tries for the Capital side.

Jason Harries led the way for Sonians with a hat trick and there were doubles by Mark Bertram and Michael Fedo plus one apiece for Andrew Chalmers, James Miller and Ali Harris, who also booted seven conversions.