Bulls 45, Peebles 40

On Saturday in fine summer weather, in front of Hamilton Bulls’ best crowd of the season, The Bulls emerged victorious over Peebles by 45 to 40. The closeness of the result is testament to the spirited play of the visitors and the powers of recovery of the Hamilton lads who found themselves down by 33 to 12 on the hour mark.
It was Peebles who shocked the home crowd with some fine handling to score a converted try in the corner on 10 minutes. Concession of soft penalties gave the Peebles team good territory, but bulls played their way out of trouble. Again they failed to capitalise on possession and territory and Peebles notched their second try after some good handling and support play. Bulls finally got on the scoreboard with a fine converted try by Number 8 Scott Alexander after some more composed 15 man rugby, demonstrating the potential of the handling skills of the young Bulls.
However, further anxiety crept into Hamilton’s play, and with it some inaccuracy in passing and offloading created real opportunities for a Peebles side, desperate to spoil the Hamilton party, and it was Peebles whose lock crossed the whitewash again with Hamilton players falling off tackles. Peebles repeated the agony when their winger intercepted deep in his own 22 to race the length of the pitch to bring up the half time score of 7 - 26. The half time talk, and the introduction of substitutes, seemed to have an immediate impact with bulls scoring through Josh White within minutes of the restart.
The Hamilton support felt that the comeback was on, but Peebles responded well with another length of the pitch converted try. It was at this point on the hour mark, that the Bulls cut loose. Tries from Craig Inglis (2), and Andy Wilson brought them level, and at last a try from Ross Inglis gave Hamilton the lead which was further extended by Josh White, converted by Andy Wilson . Even then, Peebles were not finished and they closed the gap to 5 points with another fine try leading to a very nervous last few minutes for the Hamilton faithful.
This was a vital win for Hamilton who now look forward to next Saturday’s home match with Whitecraigs which will decide if they go up. It is also a landmark game is it marks the final game for club stalwart Richard “Pepsi” Maxton who retire after more than 20 years at the club as player and coach. Club President Iain Leggate hopes that another big crowd will turn up to mark the occasion.
All proceeds from Saturday’s match were donated to the Doddie Weir Foundation researching into MND.