Knights keep undefeated sequence intact
The Southern Knights are still undefeated in this year’s Super6 – but they had to hold off a late fightback by the Ayrshire Bulls yesterday before claiming the 22-20 home win.
The Bulls got off to a brighter start at the Greenyards, with unconverted tries from Ruaridh Sayce and Tom Jordan giving them a 10-0 lead. Rob Chrystie’s side hit back with a penalty try and a Jason Baggott penalty, but Christian Townsend made it 13-10 to the visitors at the break.
In the second half, though, the Knights went in front through a Nyle Godsmark try, converted by Baggott. Ten minutes from time an unconverted try from winger Jacob Henry seemed to have secured the win at 22-13, but then the Bulls threatened to seize the points at the death.
However, in the end they could only manage one full score – a Thomas Williams try converted by Matthew Minogue – so they had to be content with a losing-bonus point.
“We had numerous chances in their 22 which we didn’t capitalise on,” Bulls coach Pat Mcarthur admitted after a game that saw two of his men and one Knights player sin-binned.
Home coach Chrystie insisted that he expected better from his team despite the result. “We can play a lot better than that,” he said.
“We were happy to win but a little disappointed
with our performance, if I’m honest.”
The four points take the Knights back to within a point of Watsonians. The Edinburgh side went top on Friday night with a 36-13 bonus-point victory at Boroughmuir Bears.
The third round concludes today when the only two winless teams in the tournament, Stirling County and Heriot’s, meet at Bridgehaugh. County lost narrowly to Watsonians last week, and head coach Ben Cairns has called on his players to be more disciplined this afternoon.
“It was another tough one to take last Friday night at Myreside when we saw lots of effort and some heroics in defence,” he said. “But ultimately discipline and accuracy cost us the match.”
There was a similar message from Heriot’s coach Andrew Kelly, who has Edinburgh Rugby’s Nathan Chamberlain starting at stand-off.
He said: “As a squad we’ve not seen the execution and discipline standards that the players set themselves. The squad selected are motivated to meet these standards.”