2007-08 Reports

WHAT a season the Souters have had. Promoted into Premier One, they retained the Kings of the Sevens crown, and two days later, beat their closest local rivals in Premier Two to take the Border League title for the first time in 55 years.

Last year, they struggled to stay in Premier Two. They made it to the Border League final, but slumped 32-7 at the hands of Hawick. On Monday night, no-one was going to stand in their way. The playing personnel is largely unchanged, so what has made the difference in 12 months?

Coach Rodney Pow said: "We were at the bottom of the league last year. It's been a season of attitude adjustment, hard training and a real belief in themselves."

The Philiphaugh men were pipped to the Premier Two title by West of Scotland, but they won't be losing too much sleep over that.

"I'm pleased we got something at the end," added Pow. "We did get the Kings of the Sevens, but the Border League is something special. Promotion, Kings, Border League; it's fairytale stuff for Selkirk.

"We rode our luck at times, but I really believe we deserved it tonight.

"Hats off to Jed. I knew they were going to be tough opponents – they always are, no matter what competition you are playing them in.

"We just had that bit more quality there and we took our chances when they came.

"Thank God the season's finished though, I've had about enough."

Selkirk skipper Neil Darling echoed these sentiments. He told us: "It has been a long, hard season, but the boys just kept plugging away.

"They got their reward tonight. It was an outstanding effort. It is a great trophy to win.

"It means a lot to me. I was very hurt last year when we were beaten in the final by Hawick. To win tonight is just a brilliant feeling.

"It is not just individuals, it's a whole team effort by everybody at the club.

"If someone told me at the start of the season that we would have done all this, I never would have believed it in my life.

"I am going to enjoy every minute of next year in Premier One, from the moment I set foot on the pitch. I can't wait."

Before Monday's match, it was evident that the Souters were champing at the bit to get things under way. They looked jumpy and restless from the moment they arrived and waited until the last possible moment to leave the pitch from their warm-up. In contrast, Jed looked relaxed right up to kick-off.

But it was the Riverside Park men who made the early assault. Seb Trotter got them on the board with a third-minute penalty.

Selkirk's David Cassidy had a chance to equalise in the 11th minute with a three-pointer of his own. Cassidy doesn't miss much and his attempt looked good, until it sliced to the right at the last minute and ghosted past the upright.

Then, in the 18th minute, Gavin Craig set up Rory Aglen for a superb break.

He was stopped by Ross Goodfellow, but the ball was worked down the backs for Ross Armstrong to score. Cassidy missed the tricky conversion from the touchline.

Back came Jed and wing Jamie McCraw was bundled into touch by Fraser Harkness, and prop Gary Holborn almost made it to the line before he disappeared under a sea of Souters.

Then Harkness turned defence into attack with a great break into the Jed half. Scott Tomlinson’s cross-field kick was met by centre Armstrong for his second try of the night. This time, Cassidy’s touchline conversion never wavered from target and Selkirk were 12-3 ahead.

Four minutes from the break, Trotter doubled his side’s score with another penalty.

Then Harkness struck again. How this rather heavily-built chap can move like he does is an enigma. He punted a cross-field kick fully 35m towards Scott Hendrie. By the time Hendrie had caught the ball and turned inside, who was there to take it on? Harkness. Having built up that momentum, no-one was about to stop his burst over the line to score. Cassidy notched the conversion to put Selkirk 19-6 ahead at the break.

The second half was a different story. Trotter’s penalty to make the score 19-9 was the only one of a half domninated by defence. Jed-Forest tried several attacks, but one by one they were snuffed out. Selkirk had an air of invulnerability which eventually ate away at the spirited Jed attack.

To give the Riverside men their due, however, they kept going until the final whistle and denied the Souters any further scoring.

Jed coach Calum Brown, who in last week’s Southern claimed that to hold the final two days after their own sevens was asking too much of his players, had no excuses.

He told us: “Fair play to Selkirk, they built up their lead and went on to play the territorial game.

“But with the amount of chances we threw up in the second half, we really should have been scoring tries.

“It wasn’t fatigue, it was just accuracy in our play. We really should have been taking these chances, but the last pass just wasn’t sticking.

“The club is going on tour to Benidorm next week. I don’t know if the players need another week of rugby, but it’s going to be more of a holiday.

“It’s difficult to come so close to so many things. And to come up with nothing at the end, it’s hard to take.”

REPORT BY THE SOUTHERN REPORTER

JED-FOREST held off a second-half onslaught on Tuesday night to book their place in the BSPC Border League final against Selkirk.

A bumper crowd turned out at Riverside and with near-perfect conditions, the excitement around the ground was palpable from start to finish.

Melrose suffered an early blow with the loss of skipper Jamie Murray and prop Nick Beavon to injury, and Jed dominated the opening 10 minutes. On the 11th the hosts found their way through when Jamie McCraw sent Robert Ferguson over for Seb Trotter to convert.

Scottish Cup man-of-the-match Scott Wight appeared to have left his kicking boots at Murrayfield, allowing Jed to continue to attack and put some pressure on the visiting champions.

Gary Hill was next to get his name on the scoresheet when he broke through the Melrose defence to touch down near the posts and Trotter's conversion split the kindling to put his side 14 points ahead.

Five minutes later, however, Melrose went on their first attack into Jed territory and scored, Jordan Macey doing the honours following an all-out charge by his team-mates that took them the length of the pitch.

Wight's luck continued to fail him as he had the unfamiliar experience of having his conversion attempt charged down, before kicking a penalty to touch into the dead ball area.

Seb Trotter had no such problem at the other end and the crowd erupted as his long-range penalty kick in the 35th minute went sailing through the sticks.

Another effort from just inside the halfway line minutes later dropped just short, but Jed continued their dominance and went into the break 17-5 ahead.

Jed appeared to thrive on the misfortunes of their visitors, showing a hungry aggression that would not be out of place in a Premier One match.

Time and again they attacked the Melrose defensive line and were rewarded 11 minutes into the half with a penalty. Donald Grieve's attempt sailed wide, however, and Melrose were saved further insult.

With 20 minutes remaining, Melrose hooker Graham Innes was stretchered off with a knee injury and it was now all or nothing for the Greenyards outfit.

Wight began the fightback with a fine solo try, but missed the conversion, leaving his team needing a converted try just to draw even.

A more exiting end to a game you couldn't have hoped for, as both teams were gunning for glory.

Jed made it through to the semi finals of the cup for the first time in the clubs’ history. It is great reward for their efforts throughout what has been a testing season for Jed with the loss of coaches to work commitments and several leading players through injury and it would be a remarkable achievement if this group of players could take it one step farther and make it to Murrayfield.

The match was played at a frantic pace throughout and with Jed playing down the slope in the first half they almost took the lead when a long range penalty came back off the bar but they eventually took the lead when Ferguson crashed over after it looked like yet another promising attack would not be rewarded with a score. The ball had been spun from one side of the field to the other and when McFarlane was stopped short the ball was fed back in to Ferguson who was on hand to crash over from close range. The home side struck back almost immediately with a penalty after Jed were penalised for straying offside during a Haddington attack in the Jed 22. Jed continued to do most of the attacking for the remainder of the half with some excellent defending needed to stop McFarlane in the corner- although the Jed supporters in the corner disagreed with the decision that his foot touched the line before scoring. Then again only superb cover tackling stopped Billy Graham going under the posts after Clark Laidlaw put him into space in the Haddington 22. A penalty from Hill extended the lead to 8-3 after the Haddington centre was sin binned for slowing ball at the breakdown just before half time.

Jed hoped they could make the numerical advantage count during the start of the second half but gave away a couple of penalties that instead allowed Haddington to get into the Jed half and were relieved when Peters missed with a couple of penalty chances however Hill also missed with a couple of long range efforts. It looked like the next score was going to be crucial and when a Haddington kick through bounced of McFarlane and fell perfectly for the Haddington winger to hack the ball towards the line Jed prop Holborn tried desperately to get back and although he got to the ball he was penalised for obstruction and yellow carded with Haddington being rewarded with a penalty try. Haddington 10-8 up and Jed down to 14 men with 20 minutes to go it didn’t look good but Jed stuck in as they have done all season and weathered the storm and were awarded a penalty about 20 metres out after Haddington were caught offside sub Donald Grieve calmly slotted it to put Jed back in front with around 5 minutes left. Haddington threw everything at Jed but there was just no way through the Jed defensive line, which held its shape well in the closing minutes of the cup-tie. The large travelling Jed support gave a roar of approval when the ref eventually blew for full time.

It was not our finest performance by any means but it was a thoroughly deserved victory and a huge improvement on the game played here a fortnight earlier when Haddington won 39-17 but it was obvious that the Jed players and coaches had worked hard to ensure they would get it right this time. A great team effort and hopefully a home draw for the semi-final.

It is great to see Scott Laidlaw back to lead the Jed side after missing most of the season with a shoulder injury suffered against Haddington back in early November. Neil Cook put in another good shift despite a hefty head knock early on. The Jed tackling was excellent throughout with the back row of Rob Ferguson, Billy Graham and Scott Laidlaw to the fore. Clark Laidlaw as always controlled the show for Jed while Gary Hill made a huge improvement from his performance here 2 weeks ago.

On a blustery Riverside Jed managed to maintain a solid challenge on the Border League with a nervy 31 - 27 win against Peebles.

Playing with the wind, Peebles got off to a flying start and led 10 - 0 from a try and a penalty. The Jed backs were firing on all cylinders and 2 breaks from Gary Hill allowed the ever improving Greg Walker to dive in for two tries, which were converted by Seb. Peebles went into half time 17 - 14 up after another converted try.

Now playing with the wind Jed started to dominate and Greg Nagle (who was on the injured Weekley) broke from a lineout drive and took 3 Peebles defenders over the line with him to get Jed in front, Seb converted. Jamie McCraw was next on the try list when he ghosted past his opposition winger very close to the touch line and touched down in the corner, Seb hit another cracking conversion from the touchline to keep up a superb recent strike rate. He then struck a penalty to take us 31 - 17 up with 20 minutes to go.

Jed made some changes, Hogg for Goody, Cranston for Nagle & Gobby for McFarlane and maybe this gave us a false sense of security but we went to sleep. Peebles never gave up and scored 2 tries which were luckily unconverted and we were left hanging on for dear life for the last 5 minutes.

Jed progressed to the next round of the cup with a comprehensive victory at Annan yesterday with some excellent tries to match the fine overhead conditions, which was more than could be said for the underfoot conditions.

With Jeds’ shoddy record in the cup and Saturdays Scotsman highlighting it as a possible upset it was important to get the first score on the board. The first try came courtesy of a lineout drive with Lawrence Patton getting the touchdown after about 10 minutes. A cracking score followed straight from the restart with Rob Ferguson and Greg Walker doing well to give Roy McFarlane space to finish in the corner. Both conversion attempts failed and the rest of the half remained scoreless with the Jed defence working well to never let the home side really threaten the Jed line but mistakes were to frequent, when promising attacking moves came to nothing.

At 10-0 the first points of the second half would prove to be crucial, the errors continued in the early exchanges of the half until Ross Goodfellow found his way up the blindside to finish well despite the verbal abuse from the home touch judge regarding his size! This seemed to settle Jed and some fine rugby followed with Jamie McCraw finishing off after excellent handling by the backline. He added another after a quick turnover from Neil Cooks’ aggressive tackling allowed Laidlaw to fire a long pass to Hill who released McCraw perfectly to run in from 70m out. The pace of accuracy of the attacks were causing havoc with the Annan defence and when another turnover about 10 metres from the Jed line fine handling and a good burst to straighten the attack from Hill allowed sub David Gobby to sprint home from halfway. Hill added the simple conversion for our first successful kick of the day to make it 32-0. Roy McFarlane added his second and Jed’s seventh try after several phases found him in space out wide. Full credit to Annan though who continued to fight to the end and after turning down an easy chance to get on the scoreboard scored from a chip and chase from the close range scrum to complete the scoring at 39-7 in Jed’s favour.

A job well done and hopefully a home tie in the fifth round in 2 weeks time. At times the backline handling was as superb and when the space was created they are starting to look dangerous. Up front the forwards battled hard to provide enough good ball with David Grieve in particular having a fine match.

Selkirk arrived early on Saturday desperate to record their first double victory in the same season against Jed for many a year and even more importantly to keep their promotion chances in their own hands. Perhaps it was too early though as they looked very nervous during the warm up and we certainly caught them off guard giving them an almighty scare.

Missing upwards of 10 experienced 1st squad regulars we went into the game with nothing to lose and started the game on fire. Playing with a rare freedom we were throwing the ball around in our own half like the Baba's, we were even getting the kind bounces of the ball. A neat chip made Selkirk carry over their line giving us a 5 meter scrum. A very simple pick up by Billy Graham drew the scrum half who was the only defender paying attention and an easy pass to Ross Goodfellow saw him dart through the gaping hole and score just wide of the uprights, Seb converted. We were soon 14 - 0 up when another Laidlaw chip was collected by Seb who scampered under the posts. A penalty apiece saw Jed 17 - 3 up at half time.

Now playing with the wind, Selkirk got straight back into the game and they really started to tick. Two quick converted tries and a penalty saw Jed trailing until seb leveled it with 20 minutes left. although Selkirk stretched to a 10 point lead from another converted try and a penalty we were very much still in the game and playing well. We were really pressing and Selkirk were forced to play spoiling tactics to stop us. A penalty got us within 7 points and pushing, Selkirk had a man sin binned for killing the ball for the 4th time in 2 minutes but we could not take advantage and Selkirk hung on.

This was a hugely entertaining Border derby played in front of a decent crowd, just like the old days. Selkirk have West and Biggar to play so they definitely have their destiny in their own hands. Everyone at Jed wishes them luck in their quest for promotion.

Jed claimed a league double against Kelso with a 16-8 home win in front of a decent crowd at Riverside today. Scott MacDonald finished of a fine move to put us 10-3 on 20 min after Don Grieve added conversion to go with his early penalty. Kelso responded almost immediately when their forwards managed to drive over but Jed kept the advantage to half time at 10-8.

In the second half Jed were in control with Laidlaw and Goodfellow dictating play. Trotter added 2 penalties but Jed should have scored tries but errors with the line at their mercy kept the scoring limited to 16-8. Scotty Mac missed a glaring chance when a fine break by Laidlaw should have seen a try under the sticks but the ball was lost when he should have scored. A much improved showing on last week and the team starting to get their health back after all the new year sickness that has plagued us in the last month. Five in a row at home , Biggar and the Japs up next couple o games at riverside

Another shockingly wet day in the West nearly saw the game called off at 1pm but some debate and a let up in the rain persuaded the referee to change his mind and the game went ahead.

Jed dominated the game for the first 30 minutes against the elements but two prolonged spells on their try line produced nothing. Hamilton started the scoring when their classy South African scrum half caught us sleeping and took a quick penalty and snuck under the posts for the only try of the day. Donald Grieve kicked a penalty to go into half time 7 - 3 down.

Jed's chances took a severe blow when James Henderson and Neil Cook both took bad head knocks at the same time in separate incidents 10 minutes into the second half and had to be replaced, although Neil did return later. The game deteriorated and more knock on's appeared and we never really threatened again. Hamilton kicked a drop goal right at the end to seal a 10 - 3 win.

West's bigger forwards dominated in very poor, wet conditions. We did well to keep the points down. Scott MacDonald scored our try.

You could hardly say the build up to the match against Cartha this week was ideal with captain James Henderson having to join the now very lengthy injury list with strained ligaments in his lower back and then Michael Weekley calling off early Saturday morning after being sick all night. Despite frantic efforts to get a replacement forward to travel up to Glasgow it was left to forwards coach Calum Brown to fill the role of the fifth front row replacement. The team then arrived at Drumbreck after a few now standard wrong turnings with the team bus, to find the referee unsure that the pitch was going to be playable due to several waterlogged patches (massive puddles!) but these were mainly in the in goal areas. With heavy conditions it didn’t look like it was going to suit the smaller Jed team, but after working well in training at improving their skills in contact, the fired up Jed side had something to prove after a disappointing performance at Musselburgh last week.

The first twenty minutes produced some of the best rugby Jed has played in a long time after some good ball retention going through the phases Billy Graham switched the direction of play and when Lawrence Patton released Seb Trotter he had Robert Hogg on the overlap but Seb put on the gas and coasted in from 30 metres out to allow an easy conversion for himself to put Jed 7-0 ahead after only 4 minutes. Jed almost doubled the lead when Laidlaw put Scott MacDonald through the middle but it was correctly pulled back for a forward pass. When Cartha were penalised at a breakdown a pinpoint kick from Laidlaw allowed Jed a chance to drive over from a lineout it looked to have worked but the ref was unsighted and gave a scrum 5. The Jed pack produced a tremendous effort to for a pushover try by Patton. Jed were hungry for more and should have scored a third when a good offload from Laidlaw was well picked up by Ferguson who then fed Badger who looked to be in for his first Jed try but unluckily it was slipped from his grasp when touching down. The third touchdown was quickly added though when a fine cross kick from Laidlaw who was showing great control in dictating the game allowed an easy touchdown in the corner for McFarlane, a superb touchline conversion from Trotter made it 19-0 after 15 minutes , his next kick was not quite so lucky when a penalty from about 40m came back of the bar and allowed Cartha to clear.

Catha clearly shaken by the fine start by the visitors got back into the game and at last made it into the Jed half. Donald Grieve was then sin binned for pulling down a maul it looked ominous for Jed as conditions became atrocious it took some tremendous defence to keep the visitors out until half time. Both teams headed for the warmth of the changing rooms at half time and conditions improved when they returned.

A huge step up from last weeks horror defensive show saw Jed run out convincing 41 - 11 victors over Hillhead/Jordanhill at a very windy Riverside on Saturday.

The 2nds and especially the 4 Thistle lads who all stepped up this week were celebrating a great 18 - 10 victory at the Greenyards on Saturday. In a close game both teams played better into the wind than with it especially Jed in the 1st half with several good adventurous counter attacks. The teams were never separated by more than 3 points until Ryan Miller pounced on a Melrose mistake to scamper over the line with 3 minutes to go to seal a much needed league win.

The Thistle had a blank weekend so Euan Fowler, Ian Chisholm, Johnny Field and Garry Ramsey all started and finished the game and in fact all 4 can be very confident of coming down next season and making a real impact based on Saturdays performance.

Jed points came from tries by David Gobby and Ryan Miller, Ryan kicked a penalty and Ian Chisholm added a penalty and a conversion.

A much improved performance from last weeks shambles saw Jed grab a draw up at Biggar but it really should have been a win. A first half try by Gary Holborn, converted by Donald Grieve who also kicked 3 penalties gave us a 16 - 13 lead for most of the second half. However some shocking indiscipline very late on allowed Biggar a shot at goal with time up which was duly converted.

Fielding a make shift front 5 the Jed lads showed a great deal of pride and commitment against the run away league leaders. Jed actually looked the better team in the opening quarter but Hawick stepped up and scored 2 tries, 1 conversion and a penalty in the first half to Elliot's pen miss in front of posts!

Jed produced 10 mins of excellent play to which their backs scoring 2 brilliantly worked tries both by Mortimer in the corner. At 15-10 the game could of went either way and with 10mins left, Walker let a nothing kick bounce and it it went luckily to one of their players to romp in. Hawick sealed their win with a couple of mins left when Reid cleverly kicked through for Douglas to follow up to score.

An extremely gutsy performance by all involved. The backs looked sharp and Billy Graham was simply outstanding but special thanks should go out to Tattie Shaw, Faggot, Bruce Moff and Tommy Heard (who injured his arm) who answered the front row SOS call and all stuck in very well!!

Jed 2nds Player of the Day
1. Billy Graham	2. Neil Smail	3. Marti Hastie

Jed Player of the Day
1. Seb Trotter	2. Neil Cook	3. Scott Laidlaw

Jed produced a vastly improved performance up at Aberdeen on Saturday with a well deserved 14-5 win. There was a lot of good individual performances but Hendy had a cracker before hurting his back at the end of the match. Jed dominated the much bigger Aberdeen scrum which allowed us to control long periods of the match. Clark Laidlaw returning from injury for his first game of the season had the back line looking more dangerous with both Gary Hill and Simon Lightbody having excellent matches.

Playing into the wind, the first half remained scoreless despite us being well on top for most of the half both kickers were unable to find the target from two chances apiece. Jed eventually broke the deadline with James Hogg finishing well after good hands from Hill gave him a chance to finish of a fine attacking move. The conversion was missed and so Grieve was given the chance to take over the kicking and slotted a couple after missing his first chance to give an 11-0 lead which given the domination of the Jed pack should have been much greater. Aberdeen then enjoyed their best spell of the match but the defence was able to cope with everything they had until Laidlaw totally fluffed his clearance kick with about 15 minutes to go to give Aberdeen hope but a fine long range penalty from Grieve killed of Aberdeen and allowed the Jed players to enjoy their weekend away in true Jethart style!!!!

Jed Player of the Day
1. James Henderson	2. Simon Lightbody	3. Gary Hill

Jed 2nds Player of the Day
1. Scott MacDonald	2. Paul Cranston	3. Nicky Bates

What a disaster!! A dire performance from Jed especially in the 2nd half allowed Cartha the steal of the century and left us with nothing. Cartha led 10 - 0 at half time but we really should have been in front. Gary Hill missed 2 kickable penalties and a silly mix up in the backs saw the Cartha full back pounce on the loose ball and race under the posts for the softest of tries. Roy McFarlane did have a chance of crashing under the posts on a switch move but some great defending by Cartha stopped him just short of the line.

The second half was a complete no show by us until a minute from the end when Ross Goodfellow touched down in the corner, Seb coverted. We did try a long range penalty to at least get a bonus point when there was no time left for a line out but Seb missed that to compound our misery.

To be fair to Cartha they did defend really well but we created nothing, dropping the ball when it really mattered and we will need to step up a lot to compete at the top of the league.

Jed Player of the Day
1. Scott Laidlaw	2. James Henderson	3. Robert Ferguson

The 2nds bounced back from last weeks defeat with an easy 44 - 7 victory against struggling Berwick, who only arrived with 15 players. Jed dominated the 1st half scoring 6 tries and killing the game off as a meaningful contest. Berwick had to play most of the 2nd half with 14 men due to injury and changes to the Jed line up mean it was pretty disjointed and we only scored 2 more tries but at least the players got a good run out.

Jed try scorers were MacDonald, Elliot, Mortimer, Miller, Cranston, Walker, Laing & Smail. Elliot and Smail converted 1 each.

Jed 2nds Player of the Day
1. Neil Smail	2. Greg Walker	3. Scott MacDonald

Jed moved up to 3rd in the league yesterday with a 33 - 3 victory against league newcomers Musselburgh at a boiling hot Riverside park.

The coaches call for a fast first 20 minutes gave Musselburgh an early lead when we gave away an early penalty and we were further disrupted when Jamie McCraw limped off with a dodgy hamstring. We soon settled down and Gary Hill responded with 3 penalty kicks to give us a 9 - 3 lead. Musselburgh eventually started to tire after 30 minutes and a neat kick from Simon Lighbody when he was being tacked by 2 Musselburgh gave Donald Grieve time to dribble the ball over the line for our 1st try.

A lineout in the same corner soon afterwards was secured by Jed and Ross Goody broke up the blind side and trampled over the defending winger to score in the corner. Musselburgh had a flanker sin binned and Roy McFarlane barged over under the posts from a scissor move to give us a comfortable 26 - 3 half time lead.

It looked like we might stretch away and score a few points in the second half but talking to some of the players afterwards the heat and the big effort in the first quarter had taken it's toll. We had to wait until 10 minutes from the end to secure our next points and gain the valuable bonus point as at lest 2 try scoring chances were squandered by late knock on's. Robert Hogg raced outside his centre and fed big brother James who switched inside, fed Simon Ligtbody who then drew the full back beautifully with an easy pass to the supporting Seb Trotter who sauntered under the posts. Gary Hill converted to give us a 33 - 3 victory.

A decent win for Jed but it could and really should have been so much better. Neil Cook was everywhere despite missing much of pre season training and fully deserves his 3 points as player of the day.

Jed Player of the Day
1. Neil Cook	2. Ross Goodfellow	3. Lawrence Patton

The 2nds also competed well until half time but could not beat a big Haddington team. Despite being over the line 3 times from lineout drives the referee deemed that we had not grounded the ball each time. We did score 2 tries while going up the hill in the first half through Greg Walker and David Gobby, Tom Elliot converted 1, to go in 12 - 12 at half time full of hope.

Going down the Hill we just did not compete the same and Haddington scored 2 more converted tries to win 26 - 12.

Billy Graham seemed to think he was at Hampden yesterday and was named as Dick of the day for the best header ever on a rugby pitch. Trying to field a huge up and under he completely lost the ball, he never saw it coming and it bounced right of his heed into Ali McIlroy's hands fully 20 yards away.

Jed 2nds Player of the Day
1. Scott MacDonald	2. Paul Thomson (Badger)	3. Billy Graham

The 1st XV went up to Edinburgh looking to avenge last seasons last gasp defeat and this year it was pretty comfortable. A Gary Hill penalty and a Roy McFarlane try from a neat kick through from Seb Trotter gave us an 8 - 0 half time lead. Yellow cards for Gary Holburn (stamping) and their 2nd row (fisticuffs) kept things tight until Gary Hill kicked another penalty. Seb Trotter was then rewarded with a try of his own to cap off a fine performance. Stew Mel scored a try to close the gap but Hilly kicked a nice drop goal to seal a moral boosting away victory.

Jed Player of the Day
1. Seb Trotter	2. Michael Weekley	3. Gary Hill

The 2nds also got off to a flyer with a 3 tries to 1 victory against Gala 2nds. We had the edge in the centers and tries from David Gobby (2) (including 1 from a mazy run that confused everybody probably even David himself) and Scott MacDonald, 3 conversions and a penalty from Tom Elliot, with Billy Graham dominating the back row battle was enough to see off a big Gala pack.

Jed 2nds Player of the Day
1. Billy Graham	2. Scott MacDonald	3. Murray Brown