Sonians battle back to show strength-in-depth

Watsonians shrugged off a poor first half against the Ayrshire Bulls yesterday to run out 34-23 winners and go back to the top of the Super6 table, writes STUART BATHGATE.

The Myreside men were well off the pace in that first 40, which finished with them 13-3 behind. But they scored 24 points in a storming third quarter, then clinched the bonuspoint try with quarter of an hour to go before holding off a late rally from the defending champions.

“We stayed in the fight in the first half, didn’t go away,” head coach Fergus Pringle said after the home win, which saw Bobby Bratton, Harrison Courtney, Jason Baggott and Neil Irvine-Hess all touch down.

“We stuck in there, and then when we did get a chance in the second half to get a bit of momentum, we capitalised on it

“We back our strength-in-depth in the squad, but to be fair, Ayr are the same. These are tough games: every time we play them it’s a real battle. I’m chuffed for the win, but we know we’ve got to move on.”

Minutes from time, the Bulls would have claimed a bonus point for a narrow loss if they had been allowed to play on and score what was a certain try, only for play to be called back for a penalty to them.

That seemed a harsh decision, but Ayrshire coach Pat MacArthur insisted his side had to learn from their own mistakes rather than blaming other people when things went wrong.

“I thought the boys deserved something out of the game,” he said.

“But they have to learn that the way that it works is if you’re a little bit off, they can punish you.”

Watsonians next play Heriot’s, who beat Stirling Wolves 38-17 in yesterday’s late game. The Edinburgh side took an early lead through Lewis Govenlock and led 24-5 at the break. Jack Mann scored their bonus-point try on the hour mark and Rory Steele finished things off right on full-time.

On Friday night Boroughmuir Bears made it two wins out of two with a 24-15 win at the Southern Knights.