CURRIE skipper Andy Adam has hailed his colleagues for the way they recovered from their opening day defeat to post a superb 37-17 win over the current champions Boroughmuir.
Having suffered a second half collapse away to top-flight newcomers Sel
kirk a week earlier, Adam had called for his men to bounce back. They delivered in some style, bagging four tries on their way to securing all five league points in a Malleny Park thriller on Saturday.
"It was the reaction that we needed from the game last week," Adam said. "We had to show the passion that comes with playing for Currie. Everybody raised their game.
"The tries we conceded against Selkirk were off our own mistakes. We kicked badly and we didn't defend our mistakes. We worked on that at training because what Boroughmuir do exceptionally well is capitalise on other teams' mistakes. We worked on our defence and we got it sorted."
Pointing to another key factor, the Scotland club international added: "We've got our pride, we were at our home park and I think that, if you want to win games, you have to play a full 80 minutes, which we didn't do at Selkirk. We showed no desire to win and we didn't have any passion in our game, so those were the things we decided we were going to change."
The home side made a high-speed start to an encounter that featured lengthy passages of attractive open rugby, but also had a physical edge that threatened to spill over.
Indeed, referee Rob Dickson could have shown the yellow card to more than the two players he sent for ten minutes on the sidelines.
After surviving an early onslaught, 'Muir displayed the killer instinct that delivered the title last season with a counter-attack that ended with Malcolm Clapperton racing over.
That stung Currie into action and a penalty by Johnny Smith was followed by tries from Mark Fusche, Mike Norton and Gavin Scott – all of them converted by Smith – to give the home side a 24-5 lead at the interval.
Scott's try was reward for a typically committed effort by the former Scotland tourist and his contribution drew warm praise from his captain, who said: "It was good to have him back, it's just unfortunate he can't commit to every week. He has been training and keeping himself fit and he will be available from time to time."
'Muir had to recover from difficult situations on several occasions during their triumphant run to the title last season and there was a hint that they might be ready to launch a fight-back when Clapperton doubled his try tally early in the second period and Elgan O'Donnell added the conversion.
Smith steadied Currie with another penalty but, when Tom Bury crashed through several tackles to dot down for 'Muir's third score, few in the windswept crowd would have bet against the Meggetland men overturning the ten-point deficit.
However, Smith again calmed the nerves with a penalty before winger Dougie Fife bagged the bonus point try when he intercepted and sprinted in between the sticks to leave Fusche a simple conversion.
Currie coach Ally Donaldson admitted that he had felt uncomfortable throughout the second half, saying, "A team like Boroughmuir can score a lot of points in a short space of time. The interception gave us not only the bonus point but also a bit of breathing space because we were beginning to panic a little."
He also revealed that his players had been stung by media comments after the defeat at Selkirk. "We got a lot of criticism in the papers for not being fit, which was a lot of nonsense, and I think we have proved that wasn't the case at all," he said.
"It just shows how wide open this league is. I don't think many people would have expected us to beat Boroughmuir after losing to Selkirk."
For his part, 'Muir assistant coach Brian Richardson acknowledged that his side had not performed to the high standard that has become their norm.
"We just didn't front up as strongly as we should have done and that's disappointing, but we'll work at it and hopefully we'll come back stronger," he said.
"Too many errors lost us the game. We turned over too much ball and they capitalised. They scored two soft tries under the posts and one breakaway. We really never got it going. Our lineout didn't function as well as we would have liked, we coughed up too much ball and they punished us.
"We didn't do the job and we know that. Currie deserved that victory so fair play to them."
Scorers: Currie: Tries: Fusche, Norton, Scott, Fife. Cons: Smith (3), Fusche. Pens: Smith (3). Boroughmuir: Tries: Clapperton (2), Bury. Con: O'Donnell.
Currie: Smith, Fife, McShane, Norton, Skipper, Fusche, Snedden, Cox, Scott, Reekie, Burton, Adam, Thomas, Cairns, Weston.
Subs: Hamilton, Murphy, White.
Boroughmuir: Mills, Keenan, Clapperton, O'Donnell, Bury, Cannon, Cusiter, Lait, Malloy, Ross, Ness, Pringle, Matheson, Martyn, Fisher.
Subs: Costigan, Eseonu, Cottrell, Waddell, Brown.
Referee: R Dickson (Madras)
The full article contains 862 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
