Emphatic victory for Dalziel

Sep 4 2008 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

DALZIEL opened their Scottish Hydro-Electric National League One campaign with a convincing win over Langholm, but missed out on a four-try bonus point.

New coach Jimmy Sinclair brought back five former players, Craig Simmonds, John Goldie, Paul Beer, Gillon Duguid and Blake Whitehead

Young scrum-half Ross Donnachie made his top-team debut, alongside stand-off Ross McCaulay, who joined from Calder.

With John Harris playing at inside-centre, and Lee McWhinnie and Gavin Smith on the bench, Dalziel had four 17-year-olds in the squad.

Dalziel found themselves 7-6 behind at half-time.

A speculative kick was missed by the defence, who conceded a scrum, and from the award the ball was fed wide to centre Colin Jardine, who scored near the posts before converting. Andy Hill kept Dalziel in the game with two first-half penalties. Dalziel grabbed their first try within a minute of the second half.

Langholm fumbled the restart and prop Craig Lewis charged through to create a ruck.

Fast ball was passed to centre John Goldie, who sprinted to the corner and he was tackled two metres from the line, but a deft inside pass to Gillon Duguid saw the winger score Dalziel’s first try of the season. Andy Hill converted for a 13-7 lead.

A series of good handling moves saw the back row of Whitehead, Beer and Simmonds combine to release Whitehead for a score in the corner, and he grabbed the Motherwell side’s third and final try, with Hill again converting for 25-7.

Dalziel are away to Preston Lodge on Saturday, eager to avenge last season’s Scottish Bowl Final defeat at Murrayfield.

Dalziel......................... 25 Langholm...................... 7