Berwick Rugby Club lose to high-flying Glasgow Accies as season nears end

Berwick Rugby Club played Glasgow Accies at the weekend. Picture: Mike Hardie

Berwick Rugby Club travelled to high-flying Glasgow Academicals as the season nears its conclusion.

The Accies had won four of their previous five games, including a clinical 50-5 win against Preston Lodge in their last game, while Berwick had won just once, although they fought hard against Newton Stewart in their last match and scored two bonus points, which could prove vital at the end of the season.

Both teams were looking for a win, Accies to boost their promotion chances, and Berwick to ease their relegation fears.

Earlier this season Berwick lost a hard fought match against Accies thanks to a late try and they were hoping to test the promotion hopefuls again.

Unfortunately Accies proved the more clinical side and ran in five tries.

The first half started badly for Berwick with some poor tackles leading to Accies’ first try before they scored a second as the defence parted. Accies failed with the conversion, despite two attempts, so the score remained 12-0.

Berwick played well from the restart and were awarded a penalty, which James Thompson kicked.

Some good phases of play saw Berwick get a foothold in the game and they felt they should have been awarded a penalty try after a deliberate knock-on by an Accies player.

The game moved out of Berwick’s reach when an Accies player intercepted a potential try-scoring pass to run the length of the pitch and score, to leave the half-time score 19-3.

Accies notched up their bonus try in the second half, before Berwick pulled a converted try back through James Thompson.

Berwick continued to take the game to Accies and scored another try when Jordan Patterson touched down to narrow the score to 24-15.

Alex Orr was controversially sent off near the end of the game and Accies scored a push-over try that was converted to make the final score 31-15.

Reflecting on the result, captain Jack Webster said Berwick got a foothold in the game after the first 20 minutes but that once the score got to 19-3 “we were probably always going to struggle”.

He added: “31-15 doesn’t reflect how close the game was, but overall Accies probably deserved to win.”

Berwick play again on Saturday, April 15, when they host Lasswade.