Week 2 Tennent’s Premiership round up

The Edinburgh side were made to work hard during a 34-17 home win over Selkirk in a match that the club’s President, Phil Thomas, said reflects an excellent pre-season at Malleny Park: “After a major squad rebuilding process over the summer, we are pleased with Currie Chieftains’ early performance. The team reflects a mixture of youth and experience, and for many of the young players stepping up, Premiership level rugby has been a new challenge.

“The team performed well in the opening match against GHA and again on Saturday against a very competitive Selkirk side. From a team development standpoint, it’s still very much a work in progress, however the team has shown its talent in attack and resilience in defence. As always with the Chieftains, the players have a commitment to entertaining open rugby and we are looking forward to the undoubted challenge of meeting a very strong Hawick XV at Malleny Park on 21 September.”

Elsewhere, a miserly defence thus far keeps Hawick top of the early pile, their 45-7 win over GHA further evidence that George Graham has shored up the Mansfield Park defence ahead of the current campaign. Hawick bagged seven tries in the match, with Matty Carryer and Craig Greer-Bachurzewski each crossing for braces as the Borderers held on to top spot on point difference.

Marr eased away from Musselburgh at Fullarton Park, the game having been in the balance at half-time with only eight points separating the sides. However, second half tries from Jack Preston, Gregor Paxton and Iosefo Turaga enabled Marr to ease to a 43-16 victory against their fellow promotees.

Glasgow Hawks recovered from an opening weekend loss to beat Aberdeen Grammar at Balgray by 35 points to 19 in a game that was tied at the interval. The hosts notched four tries in total, but that figure was almost usurped by Grammar’s Nathan Brown, who scored a superb hat-trick. Hawks’ Head Coach, Andy Hill, said of his team’s victory: “We are very pleased with the response of the squad after last week and with players returning to us from injury and other commitments, we are getting stronger. The players needed that win and deserved it.”

Aberdeen Head Coach Ali O’Connor added: “The whole second half performance just wasn’t quite there. Credit to Hawks, they stepped it up and took their chances, but we’re bitterly disappointed with our lack of composure. Our error count and our penalty count were both through the roof.”

And finally, Edinburgh Accies edged out Jed-Forest in an 11-try thriller at Riverside Park, visiting scrum-half Max Love helping himself to a hat-trick that helped his side get a maiden Tennent’s Premiership win of the season.