Edinburgh Accies 13 - 18 Aberdeen Grammar: The last word to Grammar after battling performance

ABERDEEN Grammar head coach Alex Duncan praised his side’s battling qualities after they scored the winning try with 14 men against Edinburgh Accies on Saturday.

In the 68th minute, Grammar were on the back foot and prop Moray Low, released for the day by Glasgow Warriors, was sin-binned by visiting Italian referee Guiseppe Vivavini.

The home side took advantage to score a converted try through back-row Callum Reid and level things up at 13-13 almost immediately but, seven minutes later, it was the shorthanded visitors who grabbed a winner through a try by full-back Steven Aitken.

The victory was Grammar’s fourth of the season and leaves them with a good chance of making the top eight come the league split.

As for Accies, on Saturday they battled hard but were not clinical enough when it counted and are missing the injured Robin Snape in their pack.

They now lie ninth and will have to lift themselves ahead of this weekend’s visit of Gala. Duncan said: “We have a good team spirit and I think the guys showed that in this game.

“They had to really battle for that win against one of the best defensively organised teams in the division.

“Things weren’t always going our way and we conceded a lot of penalties, but in the closing stages I was pleased with the desire shown.

“They really rolled their sleeves up after Moray was yellow carded and this result should give us a boost ahead of the next three matches.”

All the pre-match talk at Raeburn Place centred around the fact that Scotland’s Rugby World Cup squad member Low was involved for Grammar and it was the visitors who started strongest.

In the fourth minute, centre Warwick Percival hit the post with a penalty, but it took them only another five minutes to take the lead.

A good forward’s rumble into the Accies ‘22’ saw the ball shipped quickly to the left wing, with stand-off Rob Aloe and full-back Aitken showing good hands to put winger Callum Anderson in at the corner.

The conversion was missed and, at the end of the first quarter, Percival failed with another penalty and Accies began to come in to things after that. They scored two penalties through stand-off Stuart Evans to go 6-5 up before Percival found his range just before the interval to give Grammar back the advantage with one of his own.

Early in the second period, Evans missed a penalty for the hosts and, despite losing vice-captain Aloe to injury, Grammar extended their lead with a converted try from winger Erlend Oag.

That was the way it stayed until the drama in the last 12 minutes, Aitken’s try rounding off a fine performance by the former Scotland under-20 man. Also impressive for Grammar were hooker Sean O’Connor and No. 8 Greig Ryan, while centre Iain Berthinussen epitomised Accies’ spirit as always, but they fell short.

Scorers: Edinburgh Accies – Try: Reid. Pens: Evans 2. Con: Evans. Aberdeen Grammar – Tries: Anderson, Oag, Aitken. Pen: Pervival.

Edinburgh Accies: J Sole; M Coupar, R Browne, I Berthinussen, J Knight; S Evans, A Black; D MacLeod, M Liness, K Blyth, G Campbell, D Teague, C Reid, T Drennan, J Taggart. Subs used: T Jackson, R Bonner.

Aberdeen Grammar: S Aitken; C Anderson, W Wardlaw, W Percival, E Oag; R Aloe, M Ward; N Fraser, Sean O’Connor, M Low, E Nimons, M Douglas, S Warnock, G Ryan, T McGuiness. Subs used: R Barrie, M Dixon, C McConnachie, F Lyle.

Referee: G Vivavini.