Falkirk visited Heriots for this friendly. Falkirk had accepted the game looking to play their performance team but due to injuries and unavailability the Falkirk team was a mixture of performance and development players. Never the less the boys were up for the challenge.

Falkirk started the game brightly with good retention of the ball and strung phases together to give them the upper hand. Ball was quick ball and allowed the visitors to control the game; alas it was a Falkirk error that provided the first score of the game, a missed pass in the backline put the Falkirk defence on the back foot, seeing the space Heriots moved the ball out quickly to the wing for them to race in and score. Heriots were in the ascendency and soon after this scored their 2nd try.

Falkirk upped their game and were next to score, Falkirk kept the ball in the forwards and drove up field, this meant that they sucked in the Heriots defence, the space was then created for the backs to do there thing and they did not disappoint. Going down the blindside Gregor was put into the created space and as the fullback went to make the tackle he passed on to the Falkirk winger. Sam Turner in space put the afterburners on and sped down the line to score in the corner, conversion missed.

Heriots scored next and again they fully exploited a Falkirk error, taking the ball into contact the Falkirk player spilled the ball forward, this was pounced on by the Heriots scrum half and immediately passed the ball to the back line who had realigned themselves, the ball was again moved quickly and another score was conceded. Falkirk were not to be denied and responded with their 2nd try, good work from the team gave Falkirk possession in the Heriots 22, Falkirk thought they had scored but the referee deemed that the ball was held up, from the resulting scrum Ross Denny picked up and powered over to score his first try of the season and his first for over a year, hopefully we will not need to wait that long again, conversion missed.

Heriots were to score the last try of the half and again it was scored through good work from their backline.

Half Time: Heriots 24 v Falkirk 10

Falkirk were forced into changes at half time, they also gave some of their development players a run out, straight from the kick off Falkirk scored a soft try through poor tackling and you could see some of the players heads go down. It would have been easy for the coaches to sub the players but this was a development game and the boys needed to understand that when the going gets tough, as a team you have to stick together and try harder. It was unfair on the boys new to rugby and those who are still developing but it should give the Heriots team, particularly their baks is the benchmark that they should look to achieve.

Final Score: Heriots 79 V Falkirk 10

At times, the Falkirk team showed glimpses of what they can do and what a potent offensive team they can be, the secret is to string these glimpses together more frequently, within the forwards, the scrum and lineout were dominant, winning 4 against the head and stealing two lineouts, as a team they were fantastic at the breakdown, constantly securing their own possession and throughout the game repeatedly turning over their opponents ball.

It will good to see how Falkirk fair when we replay this fixture next year and we have our full performance team available and the development team gaining more experience and improving their skills. Learning from the game, when we are faced with a dangerous team who strength lay in their backs, it is important that we learn to change our game plan and keep the ball in the forwards to create the opportunity for the backs to do their thing, Sam try was a perfect example of this. Similarly, if we played a team who strength was in the forwards then we should look to play more in the backs.

The need to continually develop players skills and give them experience of games, even against the stronger teams, Ross McGarva injured his knee and Blair McWatt got concussion, we therefore need players who can step into these gaps.

In terms of performance, the usual culprits were in evidence but for his all round play, tackling, hitting the rucks and mauls, strong in the scrum and domination at the front of the lineout, man of the match was Fraser Donaldson.

A big congratulations to Alan Barr who played his first game for Falkirk