Published: Friday, 9th May, 2008 12:05
Rampant PL storm to Bowl win
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THE proud name of Preston Lodge RFC will again go down in the Scottish rugby history books, after a deserved 18-10 victory against Lanarkshire side Dalziel in the SHE Bowl final at Murrayfield last Saturday.
Of the four matches on Finals Day at the national stadium, this was expected to be the most closely contested as both sides had ended the season on equal points in National League Division One.
It was Dalziel who had the best of the early exchanges, led by their inspirational skipper, Graeme Morrison, who was playing his last game for the club.
Three minutes into the match, the Lanarkshire side were presented with an opportunity to take the lead. But a penalty from stand-off John Harris landed short of the posts.
From a lineout, good play from Dalziel’s inside centre, Barry Turnbull, set up full-back Robert Simpson with a great pass.
Simpson made his way towards the PL try line, but was stopped just short at the flag, thanks to an excellent tackle from winger Douglas Thomson.
Both sides were still showing signs of nerves at this stage, and began to test each other on the flanks.
PL winger, Ali Wood, was beginning to trouble Dalziel with his pace and the use of his boot.
The first score in the match came when a break in open play saw the ball popped out to PL prop Cameron McLean.
McLean, who was the outstanding player on the park at this stage, crashed through the last tackler five metres out and just managed to ground the ball on the try-line with an out-stretched arm.
The try was converted by stand-off Graeme Patterson, to make the score 7-0.
The score settled PL, who were now beginning to dominate with some excellent phases of play.
Quick passing in the Dalziel 22, from Blair Cowan to Greg Kinross and then on to centre Chris Dixon looked to have created a second try. But a fully stretched Dalziel defence did just enough to keep PL at bay.
A 27th minute penalty, awarded for killing the ball, was despatched by the assured boot of man of the match, Graeme Patterson, to make the half-time score 10-0.
Seven minutes into the second period, PL second row Blair Cowan was sin-binned and so had to sit out the next 10 minutes.
Despite having a one man advantage, Dalziel opted to kick the penalty. Full-back Robert Simpson put the first points on the board for the Motherwell men.
The cheers from the Dalziel supporters were short-lived, though.
PL full-back Greg Kinross chipped a lovely through-ball from inside the 22 that was collected by centre Chris Dixon on the five-metre line.
Dixon had the strength to bundle through two tackles and score out wide on the right.
Patterson was short with the resulting conversion, so the score remained at 15-3.
Despite still being a man down, PL continued to dominate the early stages of the second half.
Following a scrum five metres out, the ball was quickly moved to stand-offPatterson. He steadied himself before slotting a drop-goal to stretch his side’s lead to 18-3 and bring his own personal points tally to eight.
PL had the upper hand for most of the rest of the match, but the final scores would go to the Lanarkshire side.
Dalziel scrum-half, Alan Watson, chipped a high ball into the corner, which hung over the try area.
It was wonderfully plucked out of the air by winger Victor Czarnocki, who dropped to score the match’s last try. Robert Simpson added the conversion to make the final score 18-10.
The players and over 700 fans of Preston Lodge celebrated wildly together at the end of the match.
Those celebrations continued back in Prestonpans until well into the night.
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Rampant PL storm to Bowl win