BULLS WAKE UP LATE TO SNATCH WIN

Hamilton Bulls travelled to the borders to face Peebles in this latest National 2 match and emefged with a 30 points to 20 victory. Playing up the slope and into a slight breeze in the first half, Hamilton found their opposition in determined mood, and were under the cosh for the first 20 minutes as a strong Peebles pack put them under constant pressure. Hamilton escaped that period with the loss of only 3 points as a result of stout defending, and Peebles handling errors. Mcleish levelled on Hamilton’s first foray into opposition territory. The first half continues in this vein until Peebles number 6 was yellow carded and Hamilton took full advantage scoring a trade mark try with a move from their own half finished off by Ross Inglis after brother Craig made a telling break. Fly half Mcleish added the extras for a half time score of 10 – 3 to Hamilton largely against the run of play.
Hamilton went further ahead as the second half got under way. Straight from the kick off, the ball was shipped to the blind side where Ross Inglis scorched up the wing. Support came from full back Ross Jamieson who scorched over to extend the lead to 17 – 3. However, Peebles were returned to full numbers and capitalised on Hamilton going into their shell. Hamilton’s Darren Carr was Sin Binned for repeated infringement at the break down, and Peebles ran in two converted tries to level the score. Peebles edged ahead with another converted penalty.
Hamilton finally woke up again, and levelled with a penalty from Mcleish. As the clock was running down, Adam Ryan made a fabulous break from the base of the ruck, and although stopped just short, the ball was forced over and Hamilton took the bonus point lead to 27 – 20. As the game wound to a close the victory was sealed by the boot of Owen McLeish whose penalty took the lead to 30 – 20. Victory took Hamilton up to 3rd place behind Dumfries and Kirkaldy. Club President Iain Leggate said afterwards, “This was another hard match. This league has some great teams, and no match will be easy. We just have to keep working hard for each other if we want to get back to NL1”
Next week sees the visit to Laigh Bent of Aberdeenshire, against whom Hamilton racked up 100 points in the cup earlier this season.