Edinburgh Accies 57-14 Kelso

They had a late withdrawal of Paul Grahamslaw from the bench.

That, however, was not the only surprise for the visitors as Accies hit them early and often with a ferocious display of driven lineouts. A try by their captain, Greg Campbell, after only 8 minutes showed how Accies were going to play the game. Winger, James Evans, converted the try. In a similar play 10 minutes later, Kelso seemed to stop the hosts with the ball being held up over the line or so the referee said. However, after an intervention by the near side assistant referee, and whilst the Kelso captain, Dom Buckley, was being treated for a nasty gash above his eye, the referee decided to award a try, to show a yellow card to Andy Tait and also to show a yellow only to a very lucky Accies Number 8, Lawrie Seydak, who was awarded the try and who, to most observers was the cause of the trouble at the time. Again Evans converted.

Another try by Greg Campbell followed quite quickly after enterprising play by stand off, Max Love. This went unconverted as did the next try created by the forwards with Clement Lacour going over.

Another unsavoury incident in the centre of the field resulted in another on field discussion of lengthy proportions and the upshot of all of this was a penalty to Kelso, a yellow card to Dom Buckley and, with his luck running out, a red card to the aforementioned Lawrie Seydak.

The second half produced more of the same when, following a break out from their own line by Kelso, the ball was coughed up and the city side’s fullback, Matthew Coupar, weaved his way through to feed the scrum half, Alex Glashan, who went over for a converted try. A dropped ball by Kelso as they tried to run the ball out of defence produced a try for Ronan Seydak. Again, Evans added the extras.

Then came a highlight in Kelso’s day when Andrew Skeen broke out of his own 22 and put in a delicate chip which was gathered by Arran Jackson who pinned his ears back and ran the 60 metres for the corner. Donald Crawford kicked a fine goal from near the touchline.

Accies scored another couple of tries through replacements Callum Carson and Tom Drennan both of which Evans converted to take the score over the half century.

A determined Kelso produced another try with some good support play followed by a race for the line in chasing a hack through by Mark Wilson. Skeen converted but Accies had the final say with a try by Ewen Campbell which Evans converted to take the final score to 57-14 to the hosts and to blow a big hole in Kelso’s advantage over the chasing Peebles.

The church on the corner of Raeburn Place displayed a sign ‘ TRY PRAYING.’ Kelso, sadly, needed more than that today.

Kelso: Donald Crawford, Arran Jackson, Gary Johnstone, Louis Wichary, Lewis Mallin Andrew Skeen, Andy Tait, Michael Barber, Sandy Fairbairn, Blair Robertson, Donald Seed, Tom Robson, Ewan Ford, Dom Buckley, Ian Wallace. Subs: Charlie Marshall, David Leitch, Andrew Wallace, Kobus Laurens, Mark Wilson.

Scorers: Andrew Skeen 1 con, Donald Crawford 1 con , Mark Wilson and Arran Jackson a try each.