GHA give Accies a lesson as they score first win

GHA 31 EDINBURGH ACCIES 20

GHA secured their maiden Premiership victory at Braidholm yesterday as they beat Edinburgh Accies 31-20, writes Erin Mcritchie.

Victorious coach Trevor Carmichael said: “I think we’ve just finally put together our performance for 80 minutes. The first three games have been really hard for us, and it’s been a learning curve.”

He added: “Our effort was commendable.”

Accies coach Iain Berthinussen was reasonable in his summary. “I think it was a dose of reality for us,” he said. “A lesson in risk reward – we probably played for about 12 minutes of that game and then started to play risky and we got nothing else out of it.”

The hosts had the bonus point for four tries within 40 minutes – courtesy of Grant Mollison, Hamish Clark, Charlie Lonergan and Jackson Bailie – while the visitors had only scored an unconverted try and a penalty.

Accies played catch-up in the second half, scoring two converted tries and coming within four points with five minutes left. GHA evidently wanted the win more, however, as on 80 minutes their forwards battled to crash over the whitewash one final time to seal their win and finish off a fine day’s work.

It was a stand out day forg ha forwards Adam Barnett and Adam Kerr, who were crucial at the set piece and destructive taking ball into contact, while the aforementioned Mollison and Lonergan were at their jinking, attacking best.

If GHA become accustomed to the standard their new league requires, they could become true contenders, as they certainly seem to possess the determination to do so.