Two tries from Hawick’s Hector Patterson help earn draw for Edinburgh A away to Doncaster Knights
Two tries from Hawick’s Hector Patterson helped earn a 31-all draw for Edinburgh A away to South Yorkshire’s Doncaster Knights on Friday.
That stalemate for the United Rugby Championship club’s second string in Knights’ last friendly ahead of their new English Champ Rugby season starting away to Nottingham this Friday followed a 43-33 defeat at home to the same opponents at the capital’s Hive Stadium seven days prior.
Scrum-half Patterson’s tries were accompanied by others from Melrose’s Harri Morris, inside-centre Matt Davidson and replacement Hamish MacArthur, with MacArthur adding two conversions and Peebles’ Ross Wolfenden another.
Their hosts’ tries were scored by Ryan Olowofela at the double, Ben Chapman, Thom Smith and George Roberts, with Alex Dolly kicking two conversions and Morgan Bunting another.
Patterson and fly-half Wolfenden were among 16 academy players in Edinburgh’s squad of 25, captained by Tom Dodd, with the others including Gala’s Nairn Moncrieff at outside-centre and Peebles’ Rory McHaffie at full-back, with Melrose’s Ben White as one of ten replacements, all given game-time.
Hooker Morris was one of five Borderers in the visitors’ starting line-up, along with Patterson, Wolfenden, Moncrieff and McHaffie.
Malelili Satala, Matt Davidson, Lewis Wells, Jamie Stewart, Ollie Blyth-Lafferty, Sam Byrd, Christian Lindsay, Freddy Douglas and Tom Currie were given starting places too.
Moncrieff, Morris and Wolfenden also started against Knights the week before, with Patterson and McHaffie as substitutes that time round.
Hawick’s Rhys Tait was one of the hosts’ replacements on Friday, having started as openside flanker and captain north of the border a week earlier.