Borderer Hector Patterson scores try No 2 for Edinburgh on second start
Hawick’s Hector Patterson marked his second start for Edinburgh, five days on from signing his first professional contract with the United Rugby Championship outfit, with another try to follow up one he touched down on his debut a week prior.
The Denholm 21-year-old was one of three Borderers to touch down tries during a 33-28 victory at home to Durban’s Sharks in front of a crowd of 7,774 at the capital’s Hive Stadium last Friday, along with fellow ex-Jed Jaguar Glen Young and Hawick’s Darcy Graham.
Scrum-half Patterson touched down on 63 minutes, blindside flanker Young, 31, on 33 and right-winger Graham, 28, on 69, the hosts’ other try-scorers being hooker Ewan Ashman and outside-centre Mosese Tuipulotu, with fly-half Cammy Scott and his replacement Ross Thompson adding two conversions each.
Scoring in the other direction for their South African visitors were Edwill van der Merwe, Manu Tshituka, Vincent Koch and Vincent Tshituka, with Jean Smith kicking four conversions.
Young’s try was his seventh for Edinburgh and Graham’s his 45th.
Former Scotland under-20 international Patterson played for 73 minutes before making way for Melrose-born Charlie Shiel, Young for the full game and Graham likewise but for five minutes out from the quarter-hour mark onwards, with Jack Brown standing in.
That sixth win of the season leaves head coach Sean Everitt’s Edinburgh 12th in the championship table, on 33 points from 16 fixtures, with two games of this term left to go – away to Newport’s Dragons in Wales on Saturday, May 9, with kick-off at 7.45pm, and at home to Ireland’s Connacht on Friday, May 15, at the same time.
Everitt, 56, was delighted to see Patterson follow up his try-scoring debut during a 31-30 home win against Italy’s Zebre Parma seven days earlier with more of the same, saying: “Hector put in another good performance.
“There’s a lot of growth that he still needs to see in his game, but he’s doing the job for us at the moment and he’s doing a very good job for himself too.
“It’s exciting times. I’m happy for the boys. They’ve stuck to what they said they were going to do for the last four games, and we’re halfway there now with the two wins.
“It was a great win. The boys showed a lot of fight, and that’s what we said we wanted to do – to show some fight for our fans and show that we care about the jerseys.
“It was probably not a pretty performance but it was effective.”
Glasgow Warriors were also in action at the weekend, losing 48-12 away to Stormers in Cape Town, a result lifting the South Africans up to pole position, on 56 points from 16 fixtures, at the expense of head coach Marco Smith’s visitors, now second, on 55 from 16.
Hawick’s Jack Oliver and Melrose’s Dylan Cockburn both made appearances from the bench, replacing Ben Afshar at scrum-half on 65 minutes and Euan Ferrie at blindside flanker on 35 respectively.
Oliver, 22, was playing his seventh game for Warriors, six of them as a replacement, and Cockburn, 20, his third, all from the bench.