BOROUGHMUIR 32 GHA 8

EVEN when they were gaining plaudits for the champagne rugby they were producing Boroughmuir's success was built on a solid pack that knew how to do its job.

This season their backs have been heavily hit by injuries, sevens call-ups and player movement.

The glamourmay have gone from Boroughmuir and for a variety of reasons they may not be championship contenders, but the capital club's pack still remains a formidable outfit.

"We have to workwith what we have got, " said Iain Paxton, the Boroughmuir coach.

"There may not be flair in the backs, but although we have lost a lot of players one way or another, we can still put up a good fight."

Inthe forwards it would appear that what they have is more than adequate.

They may not be in the hunt for the title for the remainder of the season, but starting next weekwhen they face city rivals and title-aspirants, Heriot's, they could have a say as to exactly where the crown goes come the end of hostilities.

Nobody will relish taking them on, home are away, and even with Malcolm Clapperton remaining a long-term injury, the return of Rory Couper from sevens will add further bite to their back division.

Currently their Meggetland home is under reconstruction, as is their team, and the signs are that both developments are coming along nicely.

Against a GHA that revitalised itself for the second-half, Boroughmuir had already collected the bonus point before the break.

Angus Martyn had grabbed two tries during that period, and he added to that performance late in the second half.

The GHA defence had been paper thin in the first-half and it took Boroughmuir just seven minutes to open their account, Callum Cusiter sniping a try for Scott Hadden to convert.

The visitors did respond with a penalty before they collapsed under the weight of Boroughmuir's forward play, but even that score came in the form of a Christmas type giftwrapped present, rather than being the result of any ingenuity of their own.

Boroughmuir sealed the victory with three further first-half tries in the space of 12 minutes, the pick of them being after prop John Cox had bustled his way up field before off-loading to Martyn.

Martyn was both hero and villain for Boroughmuir.

Having collected two tries, which in effect won the game, he was then sin-binned just before the break as GHA started to put together some effective attacks of their own.

With Martyn on the sidelines and looking in, GHA redoubled their efforts and were rewarded with a try early in the second half.

However, once the Boroughmuirman was back on the field he again stamped his authority on proceedings, making GHA's task of clawing the game back all but impossible.

In fairness, Boroughmuir slowed down in the secondhalf, not due to any disinterest in adding to their score, rather because GHA's defence was making movement around the fringes more difficult.

Even so, the visitors could not contain Boroughmuir entirely and the home side finished with a flourish.

Cox ended up going over for a try with an unused overlap available, before Martyn completed his hat-trick of touchdowns.