Musselburgh’s first away league fixture of the new season took them to Hamilton on a warm sunny afternoon, which after a while got a lot warmer for the visitors.

Ryan Hook kicked off and the early stages were largely spent in the to and fro of midfield, until Burgh were penalised within kicking distance and Hamilton stand-off Owen McLeish put the home side 3-0 up.

Musselburgh were quickly stung into action and a fine handling move involving new No 8 Steve Finigan put Hook over before James Doig converted for a 3-7 lead.

The game was being played at a furious pace despite the heat and after gaining possession at a ruck McLeish had an open run to the line before converting himself for 10-7.

Musselburgh looked to be giving away too many penalties as the hosts attempted to gain control. The early concession of penalties had appeared not to have been heeded and Burgh conceded three more which were all expertly converted by McLeish, giving Hamilton a 19-7 lead. Although Burgh found themselves in arrears at this stage they were still competing well with some clever handling.

The second half started with Callum Kerr and Cammy McLean replacing Adam Hook and Dave Paton.

The interval appeared to have had a dramatic effect on the hosts, as for the next 20 minutes they duly tore into Musselburgh and sliced them to pieces with five unanswered tries. Wingers Skilling and Inglis were suddenly finding space behind Burgh and a piece of slapdash handling prevented an immediate score, but the points were merely delayed and a fine move through the hands put Inglis in before McLeish converted for 26-7.

They promptly went 33-7 up when a run up the wing by prop McLauchlin put his scrum-half Turnbull in for another converted try by McLeish. The play had barely restarted when another breakaway by Ross Wilson gave Hamilton their fourth and bonus-point try, which was unconverted to leave the score at 38-7.

Burgh tried to force the play into Hamilton’s half but were hit with yet another breakaway and full-back Wilson scored under the posts before McLeish again converted for 45-7. The hosts’ fifth try in a terrific scoring burst came about after winger Skilling slipped through too many tackles for Burgh’s comfort before popping the ball up to Wilson, who scored under the posts and converted it himself for 52-7.

Burgh now looked completely out of the game but regained a bit of pride through two tries by Andrew Cook, one a fine solo effort, the other the completion of a nice handling move, and one conversion by Doig brought the score up to 52-19.

Despite the mini-comeback, Burgh’s defence continued to leak and was undone again by a score by Hamilton hooker McGrath, which Wilson converted for 59-19.

Despite poor defending on the day, Burgh never lost the will to attack and, despite being well beaten, scrum-half Leitch completed the game’s scoring with a fine solo try and a four-try losing bonus point for Burgh, the conversion bringing up a result to 59-26 in Hamilton’s favour.

This was one of those games which must have been very entertaining for neutrals and Hamilton fans, but some of the defending, particularly by Burgh, was not of the highest order.

Tomorrow (Saturday) sees Ardrossan Accies visit Stoneyhill and Burgh have a bit to do at training if they are to dust themselves down and get going again.

Musselburgh: J Doig, S Watt, A Cook, A Horomeia, A Hook; R Hook, G Leitch; D Paton, N Hogg, C Owenson, N McNairn, M Roy, W Lander, G Bowman, S Finigan.