Arnold Clark Men's Premiership: clinical Currie Chieftains punish wasteful Kelso

Today at 07:22 PM

Currie Chieftains 33

Kelso 14

LEWIS STUART @ Malleny Park

SCORES win matches; it's always been true, but this was a classic reminder of that old adage. It's not the tries you'd threaten that matter, it's the ones you score. Kelso had most of the pressure, most of the territory and created more obvious chances but, in a game of five yellow cards, they were given a lesson in the key importance of converting openings into scores.

Currie created six scoring chances and took five of them to come away with a full-house of vital points in the league. Kelso created at least as many but took only two, including failing to score a point when facing only 13 men, and came away with nothing, partly due to a ferocious home defence, partly due to their own tendency to make mistakes at key points.

There is no doubt in the mind of Mark Cairns, the Currie coach, that most of the praise goes to the way his side defended. "Two weeks in a row now, we can look at our defence and be pretty proud of ourselves," he said. "I'm disappointed with the discipline. We conceded a lot of penalties, which gave them opportunities to reset and come back at us, even though our defensive sets were pretty good."

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The result means their hunt for a play-off spot is still looking solid enough with their game next week against Selkirk, one place and two points behind them, being possibly decisive. "It's not the be-all and end-all game for us, but if we win next week, then it keeps us in control of our destiny, which is the important thing, because obviously, that top four is an important goal," he added.

For Kelso, the mystery was how a performance in which their forwards dominated the scrums and won a pile of penalties, where they had the lion's share of territory and possession, produced so little in terms of scores.

"Against good teams like Currie, if you don't take your chances, you're going to struggle," said coach Bruce McNeil. "It was a strong wind in the first half. We leaked 19 points at the start and then it was an uphill battle. We were still on the bus for the first 15 to 20 minutes, and you cannot do that, you have to start strong and stay in the fight.

"They're a top-four team for a reason, and we need to aspire to be like that and grind out wins like this in places like this."

From their point of view, the remaining games are vital for staying in mid-table, clear of the relegation battle, though McNeil says they are not looking any further ahead than next week's clash with Hawick.

"We're enjoying this journey, we're getting boys back from injury, and I do believe we're getting better. I think we've not had an easy game yet, it's a good challenge, you know, but we're not looking beyond next week; if you look further ahead than that, you'll be in a bad place," he added.

In reality, Currie could thank a flying start and a strong finish for the result. Not in their wildest dreams could they have imagined how good the opening minutes would be. Kelso knocked on from the kick-off; from the scrum, Currie moved the ball to the open side and Alex Harley, the fly-half, danced his way through the defence. After only 64 seconds, they had their first try.

One soon became two as lock Ali Bain exploded from his own half on a lung-bursting 60-metre charge. He didn't have the pace to make it all the way, but his support was there quickly enough to make sure they got a penalty. A kick to the corner, a lineout maul, a couple of goes at the line, and Bain was there to finish the move he had started.

Kelso might have had every excuse for letting that opening slump get to them, but instead, they dominated the next period, coming close to scoring as a break from centre Adam Hall was carried on by full-back Archie Barbour. They pounded the home line, but key turnovers from skipper Gregor Christie and No 8 Ed Hadsell kept them out.

Instead, Currie produced a lesson in finishing as they broke clear, Hadsell powered to the left and found wing Iain Sim Harley on his inside shoulder to set up Harley for his second try.

Kelso were still looking dangerous when they had the ball, with wing Hamish Tweedie cutting the defence open, but it said everything about the problems they were having stringing plays together that his pass missed the support and flew straight into touch.

Both teams had their discipline problems, picking up yellow cards – Nicholas Barnes for Kelso, followed by Bain for Currie soon after the Borderers were back to 15 – but it said everything about the visitors' problems and the Currie defence that all the pressure ended when McNeil was held up over the line and Currie could clear their line with a drop-out.

A second yellow-card, this one for centre Scott Robeson, meant it was 15 versus 13 at the end of the first half and the start of the second, but Kelso still couldn't manage a try, though they were definitely in the ascendancy by the time the home side collected their third yellow card, this time for prop Chris Anderson.

The penalty was sent to touch and the line-out mauled to the line, with prop Grant Shiells the man in possession to ground the ball, while wing Dwain Patterson added the conversion.

Having done it once, not even their second yellow card, shown to prop Dan Gamble, could stop them doing it again, this one going to fly-half Liam Herdman as he found a rare hole in the defence to go in.

It was heady stuff for Kelso, but they couldn't sustain it. Currie were on the attack from the kick-off, with skipper Gregor Christie leading the way until the forwards got the chance to recycle the ball, at which point lock Courtney West forced his way over.

Ryan Southern, on as a replacement, featured several times in the build-up to the next score, with No. 8 Hadsell finishing things off, and any chance of a Borders recovery was well and truly buried.

Teams –

Currie Chieftains: J McCaig; I Sim, DJ Innes, S Robeson, R Daley; A Harley, G Christie; C Anderson, R Stewart, J Ramsay, C West, A Bain, A Fletcher, S Cardosi, E Hasdell. Subs: R Vucago, T Jeffrey, G Carson, A Hoggarth, W Nelson, R Southern, F Sayers.

Kelso: A Barbour; D Patterson, A Hall, F Robson, H Tweedie; L Herdman, A Tait; G Shiells, E Knox, D Gamble, A Sweenie, C Thompson, N Barnes, M Woodcock, B McNeil. Subs: H Grant, A Asante, M Shaw, I Coates, W Tweedie, M Cranston, R Tweedie.

Referee: Calum Wehmeyer

Scorers –

Currie Chieftains: Tries: Harley 2, Bain, West, Hadsell; Cons: Harley 4.

Kelso: Tries: Shiells, Herdman; Con: Patterson 2.

Scoring sequence (Currie Chieftains first): 5-0; 7-0; 12-0; 14-0, 19-0 (h-t) 19-5; 19-7; 19-12; 19-14; 24-14; 26-14; 31-14; 33-14.

Yellow cards –

Currie Chieftains: Bain (34 mins),Robeson (37 mins), Anderson (55 mins).

Kelso: Barnes (20 mins), Gamble (64 mins)

Player-of-the-Match: Plenty of candidates, mostly on the Currie side though Archie Barbour, the Kelso full-back looked threatening. For Currie, hooker Ryan Stewart got the club award and scrum-half Gregor Christie was a livewire in attack, but Sam Cardosi led the defensive effort, won key turnovers and was a power in attack to win out award.

Talking Point: It was anything but a dirty game but still resulted in five yellow cards and a load of penalties that made it hard for the action to really flow. Still plenty of excitement but not much continuity.

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