Hamilton 16

Selkirk 15

A DRAMATIC injury-time try snatched victory from Selkirk’s grasp at Laigh Bent on Saturday - Hamilton securing only their third league win of the season thanks to the successful conversion kick, which turned out to be the final act of the match.

The try came about after a Selkirk pass didn’t go to hand, allowing the home side’s full-back to intercept the ball and race into the visitors’ 22, where he off-loaded to a grateful team-mate who dived over the line for Hamilton’s first try of the afternoon.

This was Selkirk’s third defeat in a row, and allows GHA to leapfrog them to sixth place in the BT National League Division 1 table.

Selkirk suffered a blow midway through the first half when full-back Ciaran Whyte took a nasty head-knock and had to retire to the touchline. This allowed one of the Souters’ new South African recruits, Tythan Adams, to take over the No. 15 jersey.

The speedy threequarter didn’t take long to make his impact on the game, going over the whitewash for Selkirk’s first try following good lead-up work by his skipper Ross Nixon.

Tythan’s fellow South Africans – prop Bonakele Siyothula and utility forward Ian Oosthuizen – also made their debuts in the match. All three showed plenty of promise, and will undoubtedly have benefitted from getting their first club appearance safely under their belts.

Another plus-point for Selkirk was the return from injury of James Bett. The talented hooker, who fractured his cheekbone in three places in the match against Aberdeen Grammar eight weeks ago, came off the replacements bench five minutes into the second half, and showed no ill-effects from his time on the sidelines.

“To be honest I was a bit nervous about making my first tackle,” he told the selkirkrfc.com web site after the final whistle, “but once that was out of the way I quickly found my feet. It was great to be back in action again, and my lack of game time wasn’t nearly as big an issue as I thought it might be.”

Selkirk led 10-6 at halftime thanks to Adams’ try and a penalty and conversion from the boot of Josh Welsh.

After the break Selkirk’s indiscipline began to cost them dear, with the home team cashing in on a string of penalties by grabbing large chunks of territory and keeping the visitors pinned in their own half.

Solid defence by, amongst others, Ross Nixon, Sean Nixon, Scott Hendrie and Matt Robertson, kept the visitors’ try line intact, and when replacement prop Cata Graur barrelled his way over for Selkirk’s second try following a rolling maul it looked as though the Souters had done enough to edge the contest.

Hamilton had other ideas, however, and the home supporters let out a roar of delight when the Laigh Bent men turned the tables with that late match-winning try.

Selkirk: C. Whyte, F. Anderson, S. Hendrie, R Nixon, J Welsh, G Craig, J Wallace, B. Siyothula, R. Wilson, M. Waldron, J. McGowan, P. Forrest, S. Nixon, M. Robertson, A. Renwick. Replacements: J. Bett, C. Graur, I. Oosthuizen, T. Adams, D. Allan.