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Sat 15th Sept 2018 - Selkirk V Kelso 1st XV (25-15)

1st Team Sheet.jpg

Tennant’s  National League Division 1
 Kelso 15 Selkirk 25 half time 10-20


A late change to the Kelso line up meant that Robert Hastie started instead of Cormac Izuchukwu who did not last the warm up. That was only the start of Kelso’s problems, however.
An early break by Aaron McColm took Selkirk into the Kelso 22. A Kelso scrum was driven off the ball and Peter Forrest was set up for the opening try which was not converted.
Kelso built some pressure at the Selkirk end and had a chance to score when Craig Dods charged down a clearing kick but the hosts won the race for the touchdown. Play went back upfield for Rory banks to slot a penalty for an offside by Kelso.
 Continued pressure looked like paying off for Kelso but an interception by Rory Banks took him 80 metres to score under the posts for an easy conversion for himself and to take Selkirk 15 points clear.
A penalty for the visitors was kicked into the corner and, from the driven line out, another penalty was awarded. Kelso tapped and moved this one for hooker, Michael Downer to crash over for an unconverted try. By now Kelso had lost one of their potential ball winners in the line out when Cammy Brown went off with a calf injury.
A succession of penalties in the red zone against Selkirk did not seem to warrant further action by the referee and it was from another quickly taken tap that Derek Welsh was driven over for a try to close the gap to only 5 points.
The Kelso scrum was in all sorts of bother and the referee eventually lost patience with Kelso and yellow carded Downer. Selkirk capitalised on this card when McColm cross kicked for Banks to catch and fall over the line for his second try to take the teams in at the interval at 20-10 for the hosts.
The first taking point in the second half followed another scrum offence by Kelso resulting in a level of disagreement amongst the players. A few blows were exchanged and a hawk eyed referee’s assistant indicated that Kelso’s Derek Welsh was the only offender and he was red carded. I’m not sure how he got the obvious swelling on his face but there were a few other players hiding from the referee as he was administering his punishment.
A driven line out took James Bett over for Selkirk’s 4th and bonus point try after 55 minutes. 
Selkirk were unable to press home the numerical advantage especially as Kevin Wilson was next to go to the bin for Kelso after a late tackle. He was soon followed, however, by Lewis Martin for Selkirk after a deliberate knock on.
Kelso tried really hard as the game neared its end and got their due reward when Kevin Dryden charged down a kick for the quickly following up Wilson to score. Amazingly Kelso were now in the position of gaining 2 bonus points as they struggled to get the 4th try. It was sadly, not to be and the game ended with a contented Selkirk taking the 5 league points with a 25-15 win.
Kelso team: Murray Hastie, Callum Butler, Phil Hume, Gregor Mein, Arran Jackson, Craig Dods, Andy Tait, Andrew Wheelhouse, Michael Downer, Blair Robertson, Derek Welsh, Robert Hastie, Kevin Dryden, Cameron Brown, Kris Mein
Replacements: Charlie Marshall, Kevin Wilson, Ryan Ford and Angus Thomson
Kelso scorers: Michael Downer, Derek Welsh and Kevin Wilson

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