Demolition job by the table-toppers
Last updated at 15:22, Thursday, 10 November 2011
Langholm 7 Musselburgh 61 NATIONAL League Division One table-toppers Musselburgh demolished a very much under-strength Langholm side at Milntown last Saturday.
The visitors ran in nine tries, eight of which were converted, but the Langholm defence, with inexperienced players and others out of position, was very poor.
The club has a very small pool of players and currently have a number sidelined by injury.
There were only three regular backs in action and half the pack was missing.
The Langholm forwards battled bravely in the early exchanges and fly-half Keith Davidson kept play in the visitors’ half with astute kicking.
Musselburgh eventually worked downfield and, after a spate of handling, the Langholm defence was stretched and, with a tackle missed in the middle, it was an easy try for the visitors. The try was converted to make it 0-7 after 12 minutes.
Langholm had another five minutes in Musselburgh territory without really threatening, then from a handling mistake the visitors capitalised to take play quickly upfield. A number of surges once again broke the home defence and the converted try made it 0-14 after 18 minutes.
A few minutes later an attempted clearance kick by Langholm was gathered by the Musselburgh fullback who took off on a run from about 40 metres out and beat several defenders to score. The conversion made it 0-21.
Langholm set up the odd attack but Musselburgh always looked dangerous in possession and often hit back from deep when the home side failed to clear.
The Langholm pack kept working hard but the defence was getting ripped apart and another three converted tries for Musselburgh made it 0-42 at the break.
It looked like the one-way traffic would continue but Langholm made a determined fightback. They certainly had the better of play for the first 15 minutes of the second half and eventually were rewarded.
Davidson sent an intelligent diagonal kick upfield and winger Lewis Miller did well to get up to gather and jink past the defender to score. Niall Cubbon converted to make it 7-42.
Langholm continued to give Musselburgh problems but fell away in the final 10 minutes and the visitors grabbed another three tries from more defensive errors, of which two were converted.
Langholm travel to Murrayfield Wanderers this Saturday for a league match.
Langholm: C Jardine, E Waitt, J Reid, N Cubbon, L Miller, K Davidson, C Hislop, J Ratcliffe, S Devlin, C Little, A Tyler, J Ashton-Smith, S Kitching, R Taylor, S Graham. Replacements: J McVittie, S Jardine.
First published at 21:34, Wednesday, 09 November 2011
Published by http://www.eladvertiser.co.uk
