Jed-Forest, Gala and Peebles all lose out but pick up bonus points as consolation

Jed-Forest and Peebles picked up four-try bonus points after losing out by 104-24 at home to Stirling County and 42-26 away to Dundee respectively and Gala returned home with a losing bonus point after being edged out 14-12 at Boroughmuir.

Scoring for head coach and hooker Michael Harshaw’s Jed at their Riverside Park home ground were loosehead prop Paulo Ferreira at the double, taking him past the half-century mark for the club as he’s now on 51 tries in 155 appearances, along with lock Jamie Hynd and tighthead prop Jack Taylor, with inside-centre Finn Scott adding two conversions.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game and it’s never nice losing by 100 points, but we had a target, to get four tries and get a point, and the score was pretty irrelevant after that,” Ferreira told Borders Rugby TV afterwards.

“They’re a class act and they outplayed us in pretty much every aspect of the game.

“I’m pleased that we stuck in and got the four tries and got at least a bonus point out of it.

“It’s difficult to take positives away when you lose by 100 points but we had something like 16 players unavailable this weekend and we still managed to put out a decent team and get a bonus point against a very good Stirling side.”

Touching down for Gala in Edinburgh were left-winger Ben Gill and lock Glenn McCrum, with fly-half Hamish Seggie adding a conversion.

Maroons openside flanker Sam Smith was unhappy about seeing his side beaten for the fifth time this term but felt there were some positives to be taken, saying: “It was a tough game, a stop-start game, and we struggled to get momentum.

“Fair play to Boroughmuir, they played a smart game and disrupted our attack.

“We defended very well and didn’t concede as much as we do normally when we’re away.”

No 8 Robert Harrison, hooker Matt Carryer, lock Euan Murray and replacement William Napier scored the Pees’ tries in Dundee, all but one of them converted by scrum-half and captain Jack Harrison.

“It was a massively disappointing result for us,” said Peebles head coach Graeme Paterson.

“We went up to Dundee with high hopes of trying to replicate some of our performance against Highland the week before but that just didn’t happen.

“We were under the cosh very much in the first half. I reckon we probably had about five minutes’ worth of possession in that first half and that was the foundation of Dundee’s win.

“We just couldn’t keep hold of the ball, so it was very difficult for us.

“On the flip-side of that, we bounced back and scored four tries so we did get a bonus point. We kept going to the end and got something out of the game, which is some consolation.”

Those results leave head coach Ewen Robbie’s Gala eighth in National 1, on 12 points from seven fixtures, with their Jedburgh rivals one place and five points worse off, having played the same number of games.

A division down, Peebles are eighth in their table, on 13 points from seven matches.

Jed and Gala are both on the road this coming Saturday, to sixth-placed Musselburgh and basement side Gordonians respectively, with kick-offs at 3pm.

Peebles are at home to second-placed Newton Stewart and that’s a 3pm kick-off too.