Former Hawks and Krlvinside Accie George Oommen was in Scotlands' Club International side that beat Wales this afternoon

CLUB SCOTS GET WEEKEND OFF TO WINNING START
Posted: 08/Feb/08
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wales Club International team 7 Scotland Club International team 34

Scotland won their inaugural club international against their Welsh counterparts by some distance at Caerphilly this afternoon.

They scored five tries to one, dominated up front, and played on occasions with a cohesion which belied the fact that they had really only met up for the first time three weeks ago.

That point was what gave most satisfaction to head coach Ian Rankin. I was delighted with the way we got the dynamics of the squad together. Three weeks ago there were players who didnt know each other. Today, there were periods when it looked as if wed been together for a while.

Rankin, his assistant coach George Breckenridge and his manager Grant Wilson had once again selected a pack that would not be bullied by the opposition  a lesson they learned from the first club international in Ireland two years ago. But they also had backs that were blessed with confidence on the flanks and exploited the merest half chance.

That was epitomised by Heriots wing Marc Teague who scored two contrasting but very special tries.

Scotland had the first scoring chances but stand-off Andrew Skeen missed short-range penalties in the sixth and 14th minutes but the visitors with Rory Couper, Stephen Ruddick and Teague linking menacingly in one counter-attack were not to be denied for long.

Wales lost flanker Lee Edwards to the sin-bin for a breakdown offence and Scotland benefited from a close-range scrum. Richard Snedden set off right, fed inside to his No 8 Ross Weston and the ever-faithful Angus Martyn was on hand to dot down. Skeen converted.

From a stray, bouncing pass, Wales levelled as centre Steve Martin fastened on to the ball and sprinted to the try line. Emyr Williams converted.

Scotland resumed on the attack and when Graham Thomson, Martyn and Couper were in dangerous unison on the left, ball was recycled for Ruddicks long pass to release Teague who blazed in for a fine try. Skeen could not convert but did add a penalty for a half-time lead of 15-7 to the Scots.

Scotland continued to assert their authority in the setpiece on resumption and on two occasions they were denied on the Welsh line, Martyn and his Boroughmuir colleague Sean Crombie coming agonisingly close.

However, as the hour neared Snedden pounced as a close-range Welsh scrum heel was disrupted by the Scots pack for the third try, which Skeen converted.

Teague then weighed in with the perfect demonstration of perseverance and determination. He followed up a kick-ahead from Ruddick which looked destined to trickle into touch just inside the Welsh 22. Teague had other ideas, however, getting his right foot to the ball ahead of a Welsh defender and then winning the chase for the touchdown  inspiring stuff.

As the game entered stoppage time, Skeen sailed through a gap in the Welsh defence for the Scots fifth try, adding the goal points himself to complete a fine win.

Wales Club International team: Thom Botwood; Thomas Bonnell, Steve Martin, Matthew Lewis, Andrew Mead; Emyr Williams, Andrew Davies; Alun Davies, Gareth Jones, James Huntley, Chris James, Lee Williams, Lee Edwards, Colin Davies, Andrew Packer. Subs; Matthew Pettit, Anthony Payne, Kyle Coulter, Shaun Miles, Glenn Holloway, Michael Thomas, Gethin Davies

Scotland Club International team: Stephen Ruddick (Boroughmuir); Marc Teague (Heriots), Graham Thomson (Dundee HSFP), Malcolm Clapperton, Rory Couper (both Boroughmuir); Andrew Skeen (Watsonians), Richard Snedden (Currie); Bruce McNeil (Heriots), Sean Crombie (Boroughmuir), Jon Welsh (GHA), Damien Kelly (Ayr), Andy Adam (Currie), Tam McVie (Heriots) CAPTAIN, Ross Weston (Currie), Angus Martyn (Boroughmuir).

Subs (all used): Pat MacArthur (Ayr), Garry Mountford (Stirling County), Graeme Dodds (Melrose), George Oommen (Dundee HSFP), Greg Cottrell (Boroughmuir), Colin Goudie (Heriots), Dougie Brown (Watsonians)

Referee: Dale Newitt (English RFU)

This article was originally posted on 8-Feb-2008, 23:03 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 9-Feb-2008, 09:01.