Gala up to second in rugby’s Arnold Clark National League Division 1 after third win of season
Gala are up two places to second in rugby’s Arnold Clark National League Division 1 after chalking up their third win of the new season at home to Boroughmuir on Saturday.
That 46-24 victory for head coach Ewen Robbie’s team against the visiting Edinburgh outfit at their Netherdale ground takes them to 16 points from four fixtures, only four behind undefeated table-toppers Stirling County, 91-0 winners hosting Biggar at the same time.
The Maroons’ try-scorers were scrum-half Callum McNeill and right-winger Ben Gill at the double, inside-centre John Turnbull, No 8 Jamie Bell and full-back Jack Niven, with left-winger Cameron Brydon adding four conversions and a penalty.
Welcoming that latest win, No 12 Turnbull told the club’s Facebook page: “It was a good, fun game to be part of.
“Our phase play came together quite nicely and we were scoring tries at the right moments.
“It was a full-squad effort and you could tell that the boys were enjoying themselves back at home at Netherdale.
“That’s a good few wins on the bounce now and it takes us into next week with a bit more confidence.”
Gala’s fellow Borderers in National 1, Jed-Forest and Selkirk, were also at home on Saturday but both ended up on the wrong sides of their results for the third time this term, the former going down 45-35 to Marr at Jedburgh’s Riverside Park and the latter losing 21-5 to Glasgow Academicals at Philiphaugh.
Jed’s scorers as they fought back from falling 33-0 behind to their South Ayrshire opponents were inside-centre Owen Cranston at the double, loosehead prop Tomoki Nobeta, hooker Steven Anderson and tighthead prop Paulo Ferreira, with openside flanker Finn Scott kicking five conversions.
Left-winger Robbie Macdonnell scored the Souters’ consolation try against Glasgow Accies in the clubs’ first competitive meeting since 2008 but scrum-half Oliver McClymont’s conversion attempt hit the woodwork.
Those round-four results leave Jed seventh in the table, on nine points, and Selkirk second from bottom, on five.
Gala are at home this coming Saturday and opportunity knocks to claim pole position as their visitors are Stirling, but to do so, they’d need a bonus-point win as their on-field points difference is 111 shy of that of the league leaders.
Head coach Michael Harshaw’s Jed and opposite number Derek O’Riordan’s Selkirk are both on the road, however, respectively to third-placed Glasgow Accies and third-from-bottom Glasgow High Kelvinside.
All three of those fifth-round fixtures kick off at 3pm.
Last season’s corresponding matches for Gala and Jed yielded a 92-7 thumping for the former last September and a 48-28 beating for the latter in January.
Selkirk, on the other hand, haven’t gone up against GHK since February 2017, losing 21-7 on the road that time round.