CURRIE prop John Cox believes his recent sojourn with the Scotland rugby league side can help him contribute to his side's Scottish Hydro Electric Premiership title challenge.
The Malleny Park side bounced back from a first defeat of the season a
t Ayr the previous week to take all five league points from a 28-3 win over Heriot's last night.
Cox, who helped the Scots reach the final of the European Cup where they lost to Wales, resumed with Currie last night as the second half of the league programme kicked off. Rugby league commitments meant he was prevented from playing the club and he admits it was difficult watching from the sidelines as the club marched to the top of the table.
"Since I joined the club until this rugby league thing I've started every game for the club with number 1 on my back. To watch the first week as a water boy and see Alistair Hamilton go on with my shirt on – as much as I'm proud of him, he's a young lad with a big future ahead of him – I felt a bit sick seeing someone else wearing my strip," he said. "Now my aim is to be back as part of the team, work as hard as I can to get my shirt back."
And he is now ready to contribute to the challenge for the silverware. "It's been a great experience, I've learned a lot about myself as a player and about the other code," he added. "Now I have to put my Currie hat back on and get on with it.
"The training over the four weeks was so intense that I feel like my whole game has improved and I was eager to get out there and show that."
His introduction to the fray came after 53 minutes with the scoreboard still showing a 7-3 lead for the hosts that had been the situation at the break – Graham Wilson having opened the scoring with a penalty for Heriot's and Ross Weston powering over for a try converted by Johnny Smith with the final play of the half.
Smith had a rare off night with the boot and suffered the first of three penalty misses just before Weston was thwarted just short and Mark Cairns was on hand to finish the job.
Heriot's, playing their final match before facing Nottingham in the British & Irish cup next week, showed more spirit than they had managed in the previous week's loss at home to West of Scotland and there was some relief for their beleaguered coach Bob McKillop with the return to action of stand off Rory Hutton after an absence of more than two months.
"It was really encouraging to see Rory come on and I thought he looked a class act. He managed to open up probably the best organised defence in the league four or five times. That's encouraging," said McKillop.
Hutton's attempts to haul his side back into the match came desperately close to succeeding but the Goldenacre men paid the price for lacking composure in the strike zone when Matt Scott sliced through the tiring Heriot's defence to touch down for try number three two minutes before the end of normal time.
And the hosts secured all five league points when Smith darted over and raced round behind the posts then added his fourth conversion to ensure a swift recovery from the loss at Ayr.
"I think the boys were a bit nervous. There was a good air of positivity before the game but as we showed in the game, we weren't quite decisive enough," said Cox.
"Give Heriot's their due, they stuck in big time and were a different team that played against us last time. We had chances to finish them off but our execution lacked a bit. The boys were a bit nervous after the loss last week."
For his part, McKillop pinpointed the failings of his side, saying, "I'm proud of the guts my guys showed in defence but you can't defend for 65 minutes against the best team in the league and I think our legs just went for the two late tries."
And looking ahead to Saturday's cup tie at Goldenacre, he added, "The shackles are off this week. The British & Irish Cup games are a bonus we're going to enjoy them, enjoy the build up, enjoy the game then it's back down to serious business in a couple of weeks' time."
Scorers: Currie: Tries: Weston, Cairns, Scott, Smith. Cons: Smith (4). Heriot's: Pen: Wilson.
Currie: J Smith, W Moala, G White, A MacMahon, D Fife, M Scott, R Snedden, A Hamilton, A Walker, R Wilson, A Adam, M Cairns, J Thomson, R Weston. Subs used: N Scobie, J Cox, S Burton, S Forrest.
Heriot's: J Alston, M Nimmo, D McCall, R Mill, C Goudie, J Elliott, G Wilson, A Dymock, D Mason, W Blacklock, P O'Connor, M Reid, P Eccles, S Dewar, J Syme. Subs used: JP Ward, N Meikle, J Hill, S Johnstone, R Hutton.
