This first away win of the campaign was not enough to lift Boroughmuir Bears away from bottom of the Super6 table, but they will now head into next Saturday’s final match of the regular season knowing that they will jump ahead of Heriot’s into fifth place with a win at Goldenacre – which will mean home advantage when those two sides meet again in the 5th/6th place play-off on Saturday 16th October.
Graham Shiel’s side face that challenge with confidence having produced a performance of real substance here, during which they withstood several long periods of Watsonians pressure and then attacked with accuracy and conviction to build a 17-35 lead with 10 minutes to go.
They ran out of steam towards the end, which allowed their opponents two late scores which salvaged a couple of bonus points, but there is no doubt that the better team got the result they deserved.
"I'm really pleased for the guys because they've kept working hard and believing in what we're trying to do,” said head coach Shiel afterwads. “It would have been easy for them to have a different approach to things, but we've stayed competitive and I'm glad they are getting to see some reward for sticking to their guns.
"We still made some errors, and we lost the initiative towards the end of the game, but every team has times when they are not on top and that's when it comes down to how well you defend. It was pleasing that we managed to have enough in the tank to get over the line.”
Meanwhile, this was the fourth loss on the bounce for Watsonians, who started the season as pacesetters but are now out of reckoning for the 1st/2nd place play-offs on Sunday 17th October and are now likely to be away from home in the 3rd/4th place decider on the evening of Friday 15th instead.
“There is a lack of confidence, and the heads are going down a little but quicker than they should,” reflected beaten head coach Fergus Pringle. "We've got to look at ourselves and that wasn't a good enough performance in terms of boys’ physicality and energy. It was pretty flat at times in the second half, and that's not the standards we set."
Bears crossed the try-line four times through Kaleem Barreto (twice), Martin Cimprich and Robbie McCallum. They were also awarded a penalty try and Cimprich kicked four conversions.
Ross Graham, Campbell Wilson (twice) and Joe Reynolds all scored tries for Watsonians, with Reynolds adding three conversions and a penalty.
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