Arnold Clark Premiership: Selkirk secure fifth place with hard-earned win over Musselburgh
03/22/2025 03:11 PM
Selkirk 53
Musselburgh 24
DAVID BARNES @ Philiphaugh
IT WAS a game which followed a predictable script to reach a familiar outcome, but there were enough exciting and intriguing sub-plots along the way to ensure it was a worthwhile 80 minutes for both teams and those watching..
Musselburgh fired plenty of shots and battled to the very end. For the most part, they were bold in attack and brave in defence, but they struggled at times to turn the promising opportunities they engineered into points, and when they switched off they conceded tries in damaging clusters.
“When you get caught napping and chasing shadows in the first half against a team which throws a lot of deception at you, and it feels like they have two numbers on each edge every time, then you are always going to be up against it,” said defeated head coach Derek O’Riordan. “The adjustments we made at half-time made up for that, but then a lot of tries that came in the second half were either soft through the middle or it just seemed like everything their 10 did came off.
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“So, that’s one side of it for me, and the other side is that all I asked from the guys today was not to give up on themselves, and in the last five minutes we were still trying to get tries out of a game which was gone from us, so I’m pleased with the endeavour, but it has just been a tough old season and I don’t blame the guys for this but they just want it to be done now.”
“We’re a group of blokes who just enjoy each other’s company, and if you turned up at training on a Tuesday or Thursday night, or even came into our dressing room before a game, you wouldn’t think that we are in the situation that we are in. There are boys at the club who care deeply about each other and care deeply about doing well, its just that there was a set of circumstances we had to deal with this year which we didn’t have the capacity to adjust for, so we have to take our medicine and come back stronger. But I can’t fault the players for what they have done today or for what they have done across the whole season.”
Selkirk, meanwhile, played with the self-belief and composure of a play-off chasing team, which is what they are – even if their top four aspirations rely on Currie Chieftains suffering a highly unlikely implosion. They absorbed pressure and clinical when they needed to be.
“We knew Musselburgh would make us work hard because they’ve done that the last few weeks, including against us at at Stoneyhill, and when they scored early doors in the second half I thought we might be under a bit of pressure, but fair play to our guys for sticking to task and scoring four tries on the bounce killed the game off,” said Gordon Henderson, the Selkirk head coach.
“With Melrose losing, we have guaranteed ourselves fifth place, and the guys are happy with that, but at the same time we would like to be close to Currie. I think they are away ahead of us now, though,” Henderson added.
During a lively start from the hosts, it took some excellent last-gasp defensive work from teenager Bruce Weatherhead to dislodge the ball from Ben Pickles grasp as he dived for the line, but the Selkirk winger made sure a few moments later when he picked up and rampaged home after Musselburgh lost their way with a kick-return on their own 22.
Pickles threatened again when he ventured in from his left wing slot to collect possession and break clear in the outside centre channel straight off scrum ball but Musselburgh’s cover defence once again thwarted an excellent try-scoring opportunity, then Selkirk scrum-half Hugo Alderson went close when he chased down Callum Anderson‘s chip ahead but didn’t quite reach the ball before it trickled over the dead-ball line.
Instead, it was Musselburgh – who had contributed their share to the contest in terms of possession without much territory to speak of – who struck next, with a long-range try straight off scrum ball, featuring a Rory Watt midfield burst before Tom Foley showcased his pace to finish the score off.
Pickles responded on behalf of Selkirk in quick-order with another foray off his left wing to score in the opposite corner, and the hosts soon added to that score with a free-flowing try which was initiated by Pickles collecting a kick ahead, before some Harlem Globetrotters style handling – including a diving catch and offload from Corey Tait – eventually sent Dylan Bronlund cantering over on the right.
It looked like the floodgates had burst when when Josh Welsh and Alderson combined to send Ross Nixon over for Selkirk’s bonus-point try just a few moments later, but Musselburgh, to their credit, recovered to have the final say of the first half when Ross Brown burrowed under the posts, with Jason Talac and Euan Bonthron having shown some impressive evasion skills during the build-up passage of play.
There was controversy just before the break when the Selkirk team, their supporters and the PA announcer all thought Pickles had claimed his hat-trick, only for referee John Smith and his touch-judge to rule that Pete Burns had managed to turn the lively winger over with his last-gasp tackle so as to prevent the ball from being grounded.
Musselburgh started the second half in determined fashion and got their reward when Watt and Burns broke the line for Murray McCowan, another teenager, to squeeze over in the corner, but Musselburgh struck straight back with Pickles eventually claiming that third try, and this time Alderson nailed the touchline conversion.
It looked like there wasn’t much happening for Selkirk when they fumbled the ball behind the game-line just inside their half, but the cool-headed Aaron McColm tidied up, chipped ahead, gathered again himself, then fed Alderson, who sent Andrew Grant-Suttie under the posts.
Kieran Westlake was next to cross for Selkirk, straight from a No 8 pick-up, before Grant-Suttie skipped home for his second, and Brodie Allan then got in on the act to take the hosts past the half century mark.
The scoreboard had gotten away from Musselburgh but, not for the first time this season, they showed admirable resolve to keep plugging on in pursuit of at a hopeless cause, and although the bonus-point they picked up when Brown powered over again from close-range didn’t make any material difference to their season, who would begrudge them the enhanced respectability that try added to the scoreboard?
Teams –
Selkirk: C Anderson; J Welsh, A Grant-Suttie, R Nixon (B Allan 55), B Pickles (B Cullen 60); A McColm, H Alderson (O McClymont 66); L Pettie (B Malcolm 64), C Cochrane (F Smith 55), B Riddell (R Joyce 64), K Westlake, J Fisher, D Bronlund, T Wilson (F Easson 71), C Tait.
Musselburgh: T Foley; M McCowan (O Craig 60), B Weatherhead (M McCowan 71), R Watt, S Watt; D Owenson (P Burns 35), J Rule; R Brown, B Stott (Z Griffith 41), E Bonthron (M Thomas 53), A Mataitini, J Haynes, J Lister (J Arnold 53), J Talac (B Stott 77), J Longwell (E Bonthron 78).
Referee: John Smith
Scorers –
Selkirk: Tries: Pickles 3, Bronlund, Nixon, Grant-Suttie 2, Westlake, Allan; Cons: Alderson 3, McClymont.
Musselburgh: Tries: Foley, Brown 2, McCowan; Con: Owenson 2.
Scoring sequence (Selkirk first): 5-0; 5-5; 10-5; 15-5; 20-5; 22-5; 22-10; 22-12 (h-t) 22-17; 27-17; 29-17; 34-17; 36-17; 41-17; 46-17; 51-17; 53-17; 53-22; 53-24.
Player-of-the-Match: Selkirk winger Ben Pickles scored a hat-trick and got over the line twice more. He went looking for work and made things happen when he got on the ball.
Talking point: It was a great effort by Pete Burns to get across and turn Ben Pickles with a last-gasp tackle on the line just before half-time, but everybody in Philiphaugh was convinced thatthe Selkirk winger had managed to get the ball down, and it is hard to fathom how the match officials saw it differently. But fair play to the home side, for generally accepting that everybody on a rugby pitch gets something wrong at some point in a game … even the referee.
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