Honours even as Edinburgh sides battle out a thrilling draw

Edinburgh University 1st XV secured a dramatic draw at Peffermill on Saturday, scoring a try two minutes from the end of the game to prevent what had looked for much of the second half as being a likely win for the Murrayfield Wanderers.

With Edinburgh 6th in the National 1 league and the Wanderers struggling in 9th at the start of the game, and with both sides having lost on the previous Saturday, this was always likely to be a tough and potentially close game and so it proved.

The University, playing the first half into the wind, started in excellent fashion and scored with just five minutes gone. Sam Bellhouse started the move with an excellent break. He passed to McTurk who then popped the ball off to Michael Johnson who finished expertly in the corner.

With the try converted Edinburgh had made the perfect start, but the University couldn’t hold on to their lead for long as the first piece of concerted pressure from the Murrayfield Wanderers rewarded them with a try of their own: a series of rucks and powerful drives from an impressive pack leading to an easy try under the posts.

Ill discipline from both teams resulted in numerous penalties throughout the match, but neither side seemed to have the confidence and impetus to capitalize, with a handling error or forward pass often ensuing. The Wanderers kicker did make the most of one, however, to give his side a slender lead with twenty minutes left in the first half.

There was still time in the first half for one try apiece. First, the Wanderers bundled the ball over from a scrum five meters out, before Jamie Doubleday, Edinburgh’s Captain in the absence of the injured Jamie Clegg, turned the ball over for his side and passed to Michael Johnson on the crash ball. His powerful run produced another penalty, and the ensuing lineout, close to the Wanderers line, led to Rick Wright darting in under the opposition pack to score from close to the posts.

With the score at 15-15 at half time it was perhaps inevitable that the second half would produce aggressive but slightly nervy rugby. For much of it, Edinburgh struggled to make inroads into the opposition half, and instead were camped on the back foot in their own half. The pressure from the Wanderers was building and their pack, having been a formidable force all game, produced another try, with a powerful drive leading to a score in the corner. Wanderers’ number 9, who had struggled to find his range, sent the crucial conversion wide, and was to rue his error by the end of the match.

The turning point of the match came with ten minutes to go, as the Wanderers number 5 unnecessarily, and rather stupidly, dumped an Edinburgh player off the ball. His yellow card meant the Wanderers were down to fourteen men for the rest of the game, and allowed Edinburgh to finally start producing some plays through the backs with Bellhouse in particular making inroads in the midfield. With Edinburgh’s final attacking move, Wright took a quick tap twenty meters from the opposition line. The ball moved quickly and smoothly through the hands of the backs and Callum Williams, on as a substitute, finished well in the far corner to huge cheers from a substantial crowd. This left the score at 20 points apiece, and it was left to Ian McGhee to take a difficult conversion to effectively win Edinburgh the game. His kick however was not well struck and went comfortably wide of the posts.

There is no doubt that the University would have been the happier of the two sides at the end of the game, though thoughts of what might have been were no doubt running through their minds. A good point for the Edinburgh side, though, in a match in which the Wanderers had made more of the running.