The young Hawick squad arrived at Selkirk’s paddy field ready to teach their hosts a valuable lesson, and to educate them in the art of Teri rugby. And so it was that with help from some excellent educators, such as with the Alan Williamson level of popularity head teacher Matt Landels, the boys won readily with a nine try victory that was thoroughly deserved.
The Bell sounded early on in this contest and his name was Fergus, the youthful powerhouse drove over from early pack pressure and the Selkirk alarm had been rung. Despite Ali Weir being uncharacteristically wayward with his dotting the Is and kicking from the Ts, unlike his similarly aged semi-retiree Garry Simpson also forced back to work in the face of shortages , The Force lads went ten points up through Weir’s stand off pupil Owen Gray plunging over. Before half time, with the team playing some wonderfully expansive stuff, exchange student Dan Brooker powered through the opposing defence to score a try that Posts Graduate Student Weir converted. Although Selkirk had scored a penalty in the first half, and had played well in patches, they had no answer to their visitors, and the examination that they were being put through by the boys in green. Duncan Taylor may be a fine Social Studies teacher but he is no match for the study of determination that is Justin Tait as he scored a bursting try minutes after his substitute entrance to the field. Maths mentor to many Bob Elliot would have enjoyed the perfect angles of the positional kicking , and the 100% accuracy of the goal kicking , of Bailey Donaldson who many hope with return to the top class at HRFC soon. A stickler for punishing all misdemeanours, George Barclay would have enjoyed Glen Welsh meeting out some corporal measures to any Selkirk player that mistakenly got in his way, whilst sporting the beginnings of a moustache that Ronnie Wells would be proud of. The head coach’s deputy is his captain Sam Frizzell and he plays the suave Pete Beaton role to perfection, keeping his troops in order , never a hair out of place, and leading by example just as he did by storming over for yet another try , out wide and from a distance of 25 yards. Shimmying through the weary Selkirk defence , Brooker strode over for his second try with namesake David Wright watching on from the touchline, ready to teach him a sidestep , military twostep and strip the willow if he stays in Hawick until Christmas. Meanwhile our foreign language pupils from over the water in Armagh and Donegal, may not have learned much from Beaky Dickson , they were led by uncompromising Dermot Callaghan who is an immense addition to the side (even if he does wear boots the size of the Jannie’s floor polisher). Back to the scoring and Brooker was not to be denied again, he has the happy knack of always being on the ball carrier’s shoulder, there to support and assist in every eventuality, and so fellow ‘support’ hero Scott Fobister had no need to hand out punishment lines as Dan wrote his third line of the night when crossing to finish off a fine team move with 5 minutes to go, ‘i must score a try, i must score a try, i must score a try’. Grant Huggan may be no taller than ‘shorty’ Anderson used to stand , and he too never shirked a challenge, so when he answered a last minute request to fill in he was only too happy to leave the art lesson of house painting to fill in admirably as a scrum half night class student for his beloved Force. After a bobbling Selkirk try, when the visiting defence’s Chemistry briefly broke down like one of Sandy Montgomery’s Polymer bouncy balls experiment, it was left to Justin Tait, like namesake John, to provide the invaluable support to a team move that allowed him to dive over under the sticks.
There were however more hairs and eyebrows raised than one of the ever liked Captain Pugwash’s Van de Graaff generators, when after a full team flowing movement Finn Douglas swan dived over in the corner, only to be pulled back for a penalty advantage to the Force!
This was, like many games this season, an entertaining match played in front of a large crowd on a Friday night under the lights. The format works and the boys in Green are clearly the best in the league, with a camaraderie and spirit that would be the envy of many’s a High School staff room. This big win left only sorting out man of the match to the examiner’s homework book. Big Dermot Callaghan is clearly dux material, whilst Grant Huggan is always a willing and supremely able supply teacher in many positions, but with his hattrick of tries showing an undoubted ability to walk round a crowded history classroom without touching the floor, so it was that Dan Brooker was named Ian Landles-like man of the match.