Southern Knights salvage respectability with second-half rally versus Edinburgh ‘A’
Image : Craig Murray
Friday 19th April 2024
ALAN LORIMER @ The Greenyards
A STRONG second half performance by Southern Knights was not enough to prevent Edinburgh ‘A’ finishing winners by a considerable margin at The Greenyards in the opening round of the Super Series Sprint. But the home side, operating with a smaller squad than is optimal for this competition, can take much from their display despite the discouraging score-line.
“We’re missing three Edinburgh Accies players because of the Cup semi-final. And if Accies get to the final we’ll be without them next weekend as well,” explained the Knights’ assistant coach, Scott Wight, adding: “We’re working with a comparatively new group – we’ve only managed to retain eleven players so it’s a rebuilding phase once again. And we’ve only got a short period of time to do it.
“It’s been a disjointed pre-season because we’ve had guys coming from club rugby and university rugby down in Newcastle. There were 12 boys making their debut tonight.”
“It adds up to about two weeks together but some of the rugby we put together and particularly some of the defensive sets was outstanding and is a great stepping stone for taking on Boroughmuir next week,” suggested Wight, who was pleased with the way his charges approached the second half.
“At 40 points down, we challenged the boys at half time. The game could have gone to 80 or 90 points at the end, but their steel, mentality and attitude was bang on,” he stated.
For Knights, 18-year old Ross Wolfenden certainly did not look out of place in Super Series rugby while others to catch the eye were Gregor McNeish at stand-off and Allan Ferrie in the back-row.
For Edinburgh coach, Kris Burney, there was satisfaction in seeing his less experienced players perform well.
“I thought our young guys stood up well, there were quite a lot of Academy boys in there,” he said. “It was good to see guys like Jack Hocking, Jack Brown and Finn Douglas step up, helped by the likes of Charlie Shiel, Ben Muncaster and Tom Dodd leading by example”.
Shiel, in particular, seemed to have acres of space in which to roam and used his freedom to put on a display of clever and intelligent rugby which showcased his useful pace. Muncaster and Dodd were the enforcers in the back-row and certainly did a lot of damage in the first half when Knights struggled to get on terms with the visitors.
Another to catch the eye was second-row Rob Carmichael, in his first public outing since transferring north from Leicester Tigers in February. The rangy lock forward garnered a shoal of line-out ball and and looks useful around the park. “It’s not often you see a second-row stay on for the full 80 minutes” observed Burney.
Edinburgh ‘A’ showed their professional pedigree, putting points on the board after just two minutes of play from a dominant scrum and then crisp transference of ball to former Scottish Schools under16 sprint champion Finn Douglas, whose pace bought some 50 metres for his side.
Then, when the Edinburgh ‘A’ forwards worked the ball through the phases, Carmichael used his 6ft 11ins height to stretch over for a try under the posts, leaving stand-off Cammy Scott with a simple conversion kick.
Douglas, having created the first try, then showed his skill as a strike runner, finishing a tackle-evading run by Shiel, with a blazing dash to the line. Scott, this time from wide out, adding the extra points.
The in-form Douglas then scorched in for his second try, again converted, to put Edinburgh ‘A’ into a 21-0 lead.
Fortunately for the game, Knights were able to interrupt the visitors’ flow of points after replacement hooker Finlay Scott took advantage of the visitors’ hesitancy at dealing with the bouncing ball in the in-goal area..
From the touchline, Callum Grieve kicked the conversion goal but any notion of hitting the professionals further before half-time was scotched as Shiel, running a good support line, took the scoring pass from back-row Dodd.
Scott, once more, added the extra points before converting another Edinburgh try by Muncaster from a five-metre line-out. Edinburgh still had time for a further score before half-time and again it was Shiel who was creator with an overhead pass that gave Douglas his hat-trick for a 40-7 interval lead.
Despite conceding six tries in the opening 40 minutes, Knights had fight left in them and showed this spirit with an early second half try by Ethan McVicker, the wing taking a long pass before dipping low to squeeze in at the corner. For the second time in the match, Grieve converted from the touchline to give the Knights’ score tally a more respectable look.
A Paddy Harrison try from close-,and converted by replacement stand-off Isaac Coates, kept Edinburgh’s points tally increasing but, unbowed, the Greenyards outfit managed to strike again, this time from a driving maul finished by Gregor McNeish, who had joined the moving mass as a useful extra.
Inspired by the McNeish try, Knights seemed to find their mojo, defending well and especially impressive in stopping a potential maul try close to their line. Moreover, they were not afraid to attack, on one occasion moving the ball from behind their own line to put McVicker into space only for the winger’s kick ahead to drop cruelly into touch.
If Edinburgh’s scoring rate had slowed down in the second half, the visitors were able to raise a final effort that ended with full-back Brown racing in for a try converted by Coates to complete a high-scoring game.
Teams –
Southern Knights: C Grieve; S Watt, J Civil, E Greenlaw, E McVicker; G McNeish, C Davidson; J Dobie, M Brogan, D Gamble, M Badenhorst, A Runciman, A Ferrie, M Job, M Rhodes. Replacements used: F Scott, A McGregor, Z Szwagrzak, G Young, D Cockburn, W Ferrie, R Wolfenden, A Hall.
Edinburgh Rugby ‘A’: J Brown; N Moncrieff, S Leweni, J Hocking, F Douglas; C Scott (I Coates 40), C Shiel; L de Bruin (M Jones 40), P Harrison, D Rae, E McVie, R Carmichael, T Dodd ©, T Currie, B Muncaster. Replacements used: J Blyth-Lafferty, M Jones, A Williams, M Fyffe, H Patterson, I Coates, D Odejinmi.
Referee: Jonny Perriam
Scorers –
Southern Knights: Tries: Scott, McVicar, Grieve; Con: Grieve.
Edinburgh Rugby ‘A’: Tries: Carmichael, Douglas 3, Shiel, Muncaster, Harrison, Brown; Cons: Scott 5, Coates 2.
Scoring Sequence (Southern Knights first): 0-5; 0-7; 0-12; 0-14; 0-19; 0-21; 5-21; 7-21; 7-26; 7-28; 7-33; 7-35; 7-40 (h-t) 12-40; 14-40; 14-45; 14-47; 19-47; 19-52; 19-54.
Man-of-the-Match: It was always going to be difficult for a semi pro player to match the fully loaded version and in the first half that proved to be the case ,but Knights’ ability to stay in the game during the second half was admirable and there was little doubt that Callum Grieve at full-back did much to inspire his team mates with a huge defensive performance, two touchline conversions and complete safety under the high ball for which he deserves to be man-of-the-match.
Talking point: With such little time to prepare and players yet to be available for matches, Southern Knights have yet to show their true mettle but their second half performance should give the Greenyards men confidence going forward. As for the pro side, this was a chance to expose some young Academy players to what is a tough level of rugby: in the event all came through the match with reputations enhanced.