Ewan Miller made a remarkable first XV debut for Watsonians on Saturday, coming off the bench to score a hat-trick of tries and help them reach the top of the RBS National League table with a 51-3 win at Kelso.


’Sonians headed to Poynder Park looking for their seventh win in a row and despite an early penalty by Kelso stand-off Murray Hastie, there was never any doubt who was on top in this contest.

By half-time the visitors had built up a 32-3 lead and in the second half they took their score over the half century mark.

Young replacement winger Miller led the way with his three scores, while full-back Rory Steele scored two tries and centre Scott McKean and back-row Dom Dunnett also crossed. Scrum-half Brian Walls kicked the remainder of the points. The Capital side went top of the table for the first time this term after previous leaders Glasgow Hawks and third placed Hawick battled out a 16-16 draw at Old Anniesland.

The hosts had built up a 16-8 lead with 10 minutes to go, debutant full-back James Gormley scoring a try and centre Mike Adamson kicking 11 points to put them in the driving seat.

Hawick, whose earlier points had come from a try by winger Scott McLeod and a penalty by full-back Neil Renwick, had other ideas though, and they earned a draw thanks to a try by other winger Steven Anderson and then a last gasp penalty by Renwick.

Stewart’s Melville gained their fourth win in a row at Jed-Forest, winning 26-7 to put them in fourth spot.

Tries by winger Liam Steele, stand-off Mike Hanning and centre Craig 
Marshall came for the visitors, with Hanning also kicking 11 points.

They were disappointed not to gain a bonus point, though, such was their dominance at times.

Jed’s points came from a try by 
winger David Gobby and a conversion by stand-off Iain Chisholm.

Hamilton beat Hillhead/Jordanhill 31-17, with Craig Inglis, John Selfridge, Owen McLeish, Kenny Brown and Andy Wilson getting the tries.

At Philiphaugh there was drama when, with Selkirk well in command at 30-0 against Biggar, referee David Proctor injured his leg. None of the assistants was qualified to take over with the whistle from the RFU man, so the game had to be abandoned as it had not reached the 60 minutes needed to constitute a result.

This article was posted on 15-Oct-2012, 07:17 by Hugh Barrow.