Selkirk 20

PREMIER ONE

IN A reversal of fortunes, Currie swept aside a late challenge from Selkirk to romp to a nine-try victory over the Souters at Malleny Park last weekend.

Saturday's scoreline represents Selkirk's worst defeat since September 25, 2004, when they suffered a 65-3 drubbing at the hands of Stirling County at Bridgehaugh, conceding the same number of tries on that occasion as they did at Balerno.

Currie opened the scoring with a beautiful chip and chase from Matthew Scott who touched down near the posts for Johnny Smith to convert.

On the 10-minute mark, Ross Armstrong cut the deficit to 7-3 from a well-struck penalty, but a series of missed first-time tackles (a deficiency which was to mar Selkirk's performance for the rest of the afternoon) allowed Currie to exert more pressure on the visitors.

After 18 minutes Smith exploited a three-to-one overlap to score in the right-hand corner.

Selkirk fought back and a number of powerful forward drives inside the Currie 22 resulted in Fraser Harkness crashing through the Currie defence to touch down.

By half-time, Currie had collected a bonus point with two more well-worked tries from Colin Quigley and Graham White, the former converted by Smith.

But far from being overwhelmed, the visitors made the most of some sloppy Currie play as a ball was turned over on halfway and moved to the left wing. Lee Jones had a clear 40-metre run to touch down for Armstrong to convert.

Half-time: Currie 24 Selkirk 15.

Within minutes of the restart Selkirk narrowed Currie's lead to four points when Scott Hendrie outstripped the opposition defence to run in for a try.

Instead of building on this score however, Selkirk began to lose their defensive shape as Currie's players upped their work rate, with further tries coming from Ryan Reeves, Andrew Turnbull (two), Alun Walker and David Officer. Five conversions and a penalty from Smith sealed the win.

The closest the Philiphaugh team came to scoring followed last-gasp breaks by Simon Cross and Fraser Harkness, but these were thwarted by a Currie side playing with the confidence and vigour a 42-point advantage invariably generates.

Selkirk: F. Harkness, S. Hendrie, R. Armstrong, R. Nixon, L. Jones, G. Craig, M. McVie, R. Taylor, S. Crombie, M. Murray, S. Willet, E. Gauché, N. Darling, C. Johnston, S. Tomlinson. Subs: G. Patterson, S. Forrest, S. Cross, B. Meyer, M. McVie.