Hamilton crash out of the Scottish Hydro Premier Cup with defeat against Premier 1 giants Edinburgh Accies.

Feb 11 2010 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

HAMILTON Rugby Club went down fighting as they lost this Scottish Hydro Premier Cup first round tie against Scotland’s oldest club Edinburgh Accies 32-17 at their Raeburn Place ground.

The Lanarkshire side took the lead when Chris McLaughlin was beaten to a ball by David Rattray, but forced the Edinburgh man to kick dead and earned a scrum on the five-metre line. David McGrath took the strike and Elvis Levi picked up at the tail.

He off-loaded to fellow New Zealander Andy Stephens and the scrum-half spun through the defence to touch down, with Owen McLeish converting for a 7-0 lead after 20 minutes.

Edinburgh attacked but Levi, McGrath and David Gemmell all got themselves between the ground and the ball to prevent a touchdown.

Accies attacked again and Sinclair Patience eventually found a gap to crash over, with Dave O’Hagan’s conversion levelling at 7-7.

Stephens stopped another ball from being grounded but Patience then broke forward and although Levi and Richie Maxton grounded him, the Edinburgh pack picked up and drove.

Although McGrath and Robert Cowie tried to halt momentum Phil Jenkinson crashed over with O’Hagan slotting the conversion for 14-7.

O’Hagan stretched Edinburgh’s lead within a couple of minutes of the second half with a cleanly-struck 40-metre penalty.

Shortly afterwards McLeish pulled one back for Hamilton, reducing the deficit to 17-10 with 35 minutes remaining.

Levi was sin-binned for use of the shoulder when halting Jonny Letham’s run through the middle, and O’Hagan slotted the penalty for 20-10.

Edinburgh were then reduced to 13 when first Lewis Niven was sin-binned for a late tackle on Grant McCowan, before dissent saw Ed Stuart given the same punishment.

Hamilton were kept at bay until McGrath and Cowie combined on the right on their own line, tackling Dan Teague before the latter collected the loose ball and raced upfield.

A stunning move involving McLaughlin, Stephens, Maxton, Gerry Hawkes, McCowan, Ross Inglis, Craig Inglis and Chris Stannage was ended when Craig Inglis scored in the corner, with McLeish’s conversion reducing the deficit to 20-17 with 20 minutes left.

However Edinburgh’s fitness told in the end and when quick ball from a ruck released Rattray on the wing he created space for Chris Dickie to score in the corner.

Stuart Moffat then found a gap to go over for Accies’ fourth try and O’Hagan converted for 32-17, with Hamilton’s Chris Hunter sin-binned in the dying minutes.