The first ever meeting between Scotland and England at Amateur level in Scotland was played in traditional Scottish weather and made for difficult handling conditions for both teams in the early stages.

Scotland fielded an almost unrecognisable team from their opening fixture against Wales, with only Willich,  Watret and Plenderleith in the squad.  The Scotland Students Tour currently in Italy meant Scotland Coach, Mark Senter, was forced to ring the changes to take on the strong and experienced English outfit.

Watret was replaced by Boyle after 5 minutes after breaking his nose and the Scots had barely regained their shape when Lionhearts captain, Richard Smith rounded off a quick move in the corner to put the tourists 0-4 ahead.  Half-Back, Richard Pollard converted the kick.

The Scots were under siege from the re-start, however, the English failed to turn their dominance into points.  A drive up the pitch in the 17th minute by Hemel Stags, Martin, looked promised but his wayward pass was intercepted by Lanarkshire Storm's Ian Plenderleith who ran the length of field to grab his part in the history books.  Bisset was short with the conversion.

The comeback, however, was short lived and  tries in seven minutes appeared to put paid any chances of a Scotland revival.  Smith, ran in on 21 minutes for his second score despite the despairing efforts of Vaughan,  Man of Match Parminder Tutt scored in the corner 2 minutes later and an almost carbon copy try from centre Scott Roberts after 28 minutes finished off the Scots.  Two out of three kicks were successfully converted by Pollard.

Tired tackling by the Scots defence with 5 minutes to go till the interval allowed Tutt to score under the posts, an easy invitation for the extra two points which was accepted by Pollard.  The North London Skolars playmaker capped an impressive personal first half performance by completing the try scoring before the break, bouncing off the attention of the defensive wall and Pollard converted his own try to make the half-time score 4-34.

The English Lionhearts, who come together to play in the initial stages in the Challenge Cup, started the second half where they left off and within 60 seconds, the Scots had no answer to powerhouse John Dudley who ran home from 10 metres despite 3 defenders hanging onto him.  Pollard kept his kicking boots on for the second half an it was a comfortable kick to put the English 4-40 ahead.

The half time talk from within the Scots camp was to play with the pride that goes with the jersey and the Scots valiantly tried to break down the door from the re-start.  An intelligent kick thru from Teddy Rodgers brought confusion to the English back-line.  Despite two sets of 6 for the Scots, following an infringement by the Lionhearts, the Scots lost possession following a forward pass.

The tournament favourites took full advantage of this and Molloy followed up his 'up-n-under' in the 55th minute and as Rodger and Wilson left the high ball to each other, the Bridlington Bulls winger collected the ball and ran in unopposed.  Pollard converted his easiest kick of the day.

Molloy scored his second in as many minutes after a bursting run from the Rotherham Giants, Dudley, who trampled over Rodgers, to release the Skolars player for another score.  Pollard converted to make the score 4-52.

The Scots held the try happy travellers at bay until the 70th minute when the Scots looked like scoring themselves, but slack passing meant a mis-timed pass was collected by the Man-of-the-Match, Tutt to pin back the ears to run 80 metres to score.  Pollard completed his fantastic scoring for the day to make it 4-58.

The Scots never say die attitude was evident and the biggest cheer of the day was left til the 74th minute.  Hughes, from the Edinburgh Eagles club, produced a perfect angle for Scotland's man of the match Teddy Rodger, to throw a fantastic dummy to the oncoming traffic and dive in at the corner.  With captain Bisset having retired from the proceedings, it was Jamieson who had a difficult kick to convert from the sideline.  Unfortunately the Bulls second rower was unsuccessful to make the final score, Scotland 8 England 58.

SCOTLAND AMATEURS: 1. Ray Vaughan (Portobello Playboys), 2. Paul Campbell (Bridlington Bulls), 3. Steve Bissett (Edinburgh Eagles) 4. Donald Hughes (Edinburgh Eagles), 5. Ian Plenderleith (Lanarkshire Storm), 6. Teddy Rodger (Clyde Buccaneers), 7. Ally MacAuley (Glasgow Bulls), 8. David Jamieson (Glasgow Bulls), 9. Kenny Willich (Edinburgh Eagles), 10. Kieron Watret (Border Eagles), 11. Gareth McColl (Fife Lions), 12. Melvin Hart (Edinburgh Eagles), 13. Colin Wilson (Fife Lions) 14. Carl Wallace (Edinburgh Eagles), 15. James Doig (Portbello Playboys), 16. Shaun Boyle (Edinburgh Eagles), 17. Alex Sloan (Border Eagles), 18. Scott McGillvary (Fife Lions)

ENGLAND AMATEURS: 1 Graham Batty (Nottingham Outlaws), 2 Parminder Tutt (Wolverhampton Wizards), 3 Scott Roberts (Hemel Stags), 4 Gareth Martin (Hemel Stags), 5 Gavin Molloy (Bridlington Bulls), 6 Callum Irving (Bridlington Bulls), 7 Richard Pollard (North London Skolars), 8 Ward Jones (Manchester Knights), 9 Richard Smith (Hemel Stags) – captain, 10 Darryl Jackson (Rotherham Giants), 11 Chris Richards (Gloucestershire Warriors), 12 Ronnie Haines (Gloucestershire Warriors), 13 Dave Wattam (Crawley Jets).  Subs, 14 Jimmy Daines (Hemel Stags), 15 Mark Maudsley (Manchester Knights), 16 John Dudley (Rotherham Giants), 17 Richard Whitehouse (Worcestershire Saints)

Source - Mark Brown

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