Linlithgow 55 – 52 Broughton
Saturday 16th September 2023
Report by David Mitchell
Linlithgow hosted Broughton in an East League Division 1 fixture at Mains Park on Saturday and the large crowd were treated to a pulsating 80 minutes with the home team snatching victory in the last minute of the game. After the heavy rain on Friday, the pitch was in surprisingly good condition after the sun came out late on Saturday morning. Both touchlines had a good number of spectators on them to watch a contest that was almost farcical at times with dramatic swings of momentum throughout. Mark Caddle returned for the Reds after his shoulder injury and Ewan Curran made his 1st starting role at centre in a very youthful back line.
Broughton were the first team to strike when their powerful left wing went over for the opening unconverted try. The Reds responded well and in the next 20 began to dominate proceedings and in particular at the scrummage. This led to 3 tries in fairly quick succession with the 1st being a solo try by Conor Finlay who spotted a gap in the visitors’ defence and shot though to cruise in at the posts. The 2nd try followed soon after when Ewan Curran finished off a slick handling move by showing great strength and determination to burst over the line with defenders in close attendance. The next try was down to another solid presentation of the ball by the pack and slick passing by Jack Frame and Ewan Curran sending full back Ross Tulloch in for a try. Frame kicked extra points for 2 of the tries to give the home side a 19-5 lead.
At this point, Broughton were unable to continue to meet the scrum requirements and the referee had to invoke the uncontested scrum rule. This immediately removed the Reds’ significant advantage at the scrum and also denied our 2 starting props the opportunity to play on as the coaching team correctly replaced them with more mobile players although stalwart prop Colin Devlin had already sustained an injury and would not have completed the game. In an alarming turn of events, Broughton seemed to be galvanised by the disruption to the game and proceeded to run in 3 converted tries mainly down the right flank of the home team with the number 8 and left wing being particularly difficult for the home defence to handle. The half time score of 19-26 seemed a very unlikely prospect after 25 minutes but the combination of poor tackling and some strong running gave Broughton a half time lead and a Bonus Point for scoring 4 tries.
The second half started with Broughton continuing to starve the Reds of possession and it was no surprise when they stretched their lead with another try to make the score 19-31. At this point things looked grim for the Reds but they then played 20 minutes of sublime rugby and scored 5 tries with 4 conversions and move the score to 52-31. This astonishing turnaround resulted from gaining more possession, playing at a faster pace, fine tactical kicking for position and excellent handling, offloading and support play by the whole team. Broughton had no answer to the onslaught and tries were scored by Cammy Murrie after a well weighted cross kick by Jack Frame, Frame himself after a neat side step under the posts and a hat trick capping an excellent individual performance from Mark Caddle who ran in 3 very similar tries all of which required strong and elusive running. The forwards had a big part to play during this phase and the quick and accurate ball provided was a key factor in the 5 tries scored.
Unfortunately Conor Finlay sustained a hand injury which hopefully will turn out to be a minor one and he was replaced by Murray Johnstone with Jack Frame moving in to stand off. Adam Scott also came off the bench giving all 4 replacements game time and it was good to see all 4 contributing well with Kieran Cochrane and Stuart Cunningham in particular being prominent and making some strong drives at the Broughton defence.
With the home crowd feeling a bit more relaxed with such a healthy lead and Broughton down to 14 men after a player was yellow carded, the supporters were looking forward to a barrow load of more tries but unfortunately they came at the wrong end. From what seemed like a hopeless position, Broughton began to dominate the ball and with their strong runners back on song allied to brittle defence from the Reds, they scored 3 further converted tries to make the score 52-52 with 2 minutes to play.
Thankfully the Reds forced a turnover just outside the Broughton 22 metre area and it was left to captain Jack Frame to slot the penalty kick from about 25 metres in front of the posts to give the hosts a 55-52 victory. Both team scored 8 tries and 6 conversions in one of the highest scoring games seen at Mains Park in a very long time. In the end the Reds gained the 5 points on offer for a Bonus win but Broughton did not leave empty handed having gained a 4 try Bonus Point as well as a point for being within 7 points of the winners.
There were many positives to be taken from this performance. The team scored 8 tries through 6 different players and continue to be a potent scoring machine with 136 points scored in their 3 league matches to date. The lineout functioned well with Kyle Ormond finding his jumpers with increasing regularity. The scrum was going very well before the early move to uncontested scrums. The tactical kicking was the best seen so far this campaign with great territorial platforms created which subsequently led to many of the 2nd half tries. The units within the forward pack continue to develop with the strong front row, hard working 2nd row and the very effective back row all blending well. The young back line and in particular the inside 3 of Archie Rusack, Conor Finlay and Ewan Curran all performing strongly and playing with composure and confidence. Finally it was good to see Jack Frame building on his kicking performance at Portobello with another 20 points from a try, 6 conversions and the winning penalty kick.
However it would be wrong to ignore the downsides. The tackling was poor during much of the game and many teams seem to be having the same problems adjusting to the new tackle height laws. This needs a lot of work to ensure that our attacking prowess is not negated by our defensive frailties. The team seemed unable to stop Broughton retaining possession and recycling the ball in the last 20 minutes and need to find more aggressive ways to slow down the opposition ball and win more turnovers. The other habit that needs to change is trying to carry the ball out of defence in our own 22 metre area. On several occasions the ball needed to be secured and then kicked deep into opposition territory but this was not done and this over playing allowed the opposition to keep the Reds deep in trouble when it was clear that relieving kicks would have lessened the pressure being applied by Broughton.
Overall another 5 points to give a maximum 15 points from the 1st 3 games so much to happy about. This was indeed a strange affair with periods of unbridled joy interspersed with periods of tearing out of hair. Next week the Reds host Royal High who although they have 0 points from their 1st 3 games must not be taken lightly as they lost narrowly in 2 of them and will provide a stiff challenge to the Reds’ 100% win record.
Team List:
Calum McKeown, Kyle Ormond, Colin Devlin, Fraser Mochrie, Eioan Magee, Oscar Davies, Jamie Tulloch, Mark Caddle, Archie Rusack, Conor Finlay, Luke O’Hara, Ewan Curran, Jack Frame (c), Cammy Murrie and Ross Tulloch
Replacements: Adam Scott, Stuart Cunningham, Kieran Cochrane and Murray Johnstone
Linlithgow Rugby Club 