A group of volunteers headed up by Joe Armstrong was on hand at 10.00am last Saturday morning to move water from the pitch and allow the East League match versus RHC to go ahead and although the ground was still wet at kick off time the sun was shining.

Adam McNair won the toss and RHC kicked off playing towards the club house. Their big pack of forwards took the game to North Berwick and the home side didn’t see the ball for the first few minutes but good defence eventually created a turn over and the lines were cleared.

North Berwick were playing well and moving the ball away from contact and began to threaten but when it would have been easier to put the ball into touch there was a mix up and RHC drove into the home 22 and the quick ball went right where there was an overlap and a simple score in the corner opened events. Seven minutes had passed.

North Berwick were spurred on by this and for the next twenty minutes had much of the play. A feature was the excellent handling and support play and RHC were certainly on the back foot. Liam West was dictating play from stand off and was ably supported by the experienced Calum Mark. Grant Spence was working hard to support his forwards and from a line out in the RHC 22 he darted through a gap and was stopped just under to posts.

After all this pressure all that was to show was a well struck penalty by West after twenty five minutes.

From another penalty the home side failed to make touch and RHC kicked well into the home 22. The lineout saw a knock on and there was an attacking five meter scrum. RHC got it moving towards the line and when it collapsed, the referee adjudged that a try would have been scored and awarded a penalty try, the conversion from in front of the posts was a formality.

One notable piece of defence came when another kick and chase by RHC looked like it would result in a try but pace from Iain Dove saw him chase back and dive on the ball to save his side going further behind.

Half Time: North Berwick 3 RHC 12

At half time there were two changes for the home side with Jamie Dove replacing Grant Black and Quenton Caulfield replacing Iain Dove.

Playing down the slope and with some help from the wind North Berwick attacked RHC in all areas of the pitch and from a drive by Caulfield, Bhrian Buchanan made it over the line to reduce the deficit. West missed the conversion but now the home side was within four points and surely they would turn pressure into points.

With the pitch turning brown and the players becoming indistinguishable from each other it turned into a war of attrition and that was the visitor’s strength. Although there were opportunities for North Berwick, as the match wore on it became clear that the size of the RHC pack was an advantage and the home backs were having difficulty in finding that one opening which would have taken all the points.

Although the crowd roared on the home side, there was no further scoring and a game that could have been won was lost and that now makes four games lost this season by very small margins.

All the players worked hard and the forwards take much credit with Adam McNair involved in everything good. He was ably supported by all his forwards, with Ben Inglis having a strong game. Gregor Anderson took the man of the match pint but it could have been any one of the pack.



Team v Duns: G Fairgrieve, Kyle Hamilton, A Elder, C Mark, J Armstrong, L West, G Spence, J Riddell, B Buchanan, A Gallagher, I Dove, A McNair (Capt), G Black, B Inglis, G Andreson. Subs: D Waldman, J Dove, Q Caulfield