Hamilton need to be on the ball
Defeat leaves Bulls 10th in table
Musselburgh .... 60 Hamilton .......... 26 Hamilton coach David Gemmell urged his side to get on the ball more and defend better, having watched his side slump to a 60-26 defeat at Musselburgh.
The result leaves the Bulls 10th in the BT National League 1 table, following their third straight defeat, with only one win so far this season.
While Gemmell was pleased that Hamilton were able to take a fourtry bonus point he wasn’t happy with the overall performance.
“We are attacking pretty well, but we need more ball,” he said. “We’ve been working on our defence, but we need to organise it better.
“I’m pleased that we earned a four-try bonus point, given the way the game was going, but I’m certainly not satisfied with the way we defended.”
Certainly there were issues with Hamilton’s defensive structure and tackles were missed, but against a Musselburgh side whose packed dominated possession, the young Bulls spent perhaps as much as 80 per cent of the match defending.
On the odd occasion that Hamilton did get the ball, their backs looked sharp but were always trying to break from deep in their own territory, and the Musselburgh cover defence was usually able to scramble back.
Hamilton started brightly and took Musselburgh’s kick-off, retained possession deep in their own half through three phases, before Adam Ryan burst clear.
As the cover defence closed in he fed Andy Wilson, who drew the fullback and popped back inside to Ryan, who romped under the posts, with Owen Mcleish’s conversion putting Hamilton 7-0 ahead after two minutes.
For the next 20 minutes, however, Hamilton simply couldn’t get their hands on the ball and racked up four tries. Adam Cook dived over from short range, prop David Paton twice touched down from driven line-outs and some good back play put Tomas Rodrigo clean through. Danny Owenson converted two, and from 7-0 ahead the Bulls found themselves 24-7 behind.
Hamilton finally got the ball and went through seven or eight phases before Owen Mcleish’s perfectly weighted cross-kick to Mark Wallace allowed him to catch and touch down.
There were groans of dismay when captain Craig Inglis seemed to be harshly penalised, Musselburgh kicked to the corner and drove the line-out; at their third attempt Michael Fleming flopped over.
Inglis, Ben Plant and Wilson went close, and when Mcleish’s deft kick put Wilson through to touch down the Hamilton bench were incensed when he was penalised for being in front of the kicker. It must have been a close call, to say the least. The half ended 31-12 to Musselburgh.
Musselburgh claimed a further two tries in 10 minutes through Graeme Bowman and Cook, to stretch their lead. However, Gemmell sent on Greg Richardson, Gareth Payne and Mark Kennedy, which spurred on a Hamilton fightback.
An astonishing 40-metre break by prop Yann Young took him deep into the 22, and when he was held he was able to pop the ball to Josh White, who showed great strength to barge over for a great try, with Mcleish adding the conversion.
Starting on their own line, Andy Bruce made the first burst and from the ruck the ball was moved to Inglis on the wing, who surged past his marker, chipped the cover, regathered and popped the ball to Wilson, who swapped passes with Ryan before scorching clear to score, reducing the deficit to 43-26.
In a game in which Hamilton were largely starved of the ball they had managed to run in four tries, which clearly rattled the hosts.
Musselburgh recovered from that, however, and ran in two further tries through Fleming and Rory Watt, and with Owenson converting both, the scoreline was stretched to 60-26.
Hamilton on Saturday host fifth-placed GHA hoping to grab more points, with just Howe of Fife and Stewarts-melville below them on two points and one point, respectively.