Falkirk 25 Peebles 17: Nervous ending at Horne Park

With the scent of a dramatic victory in their nostrils Peebles virtually encamped themselves on Falkirk’s five metre line for injury time, but to their enormous relief Falkirk held on for a hard fought win at the end of the day.

It had been a different story earlier when at an early penalty Scrum-Half Fionn Call went through his usual ritual and seemed to strike the ball pretty accurately, but agonisingly it struck the right-hand upright full on and bounced back into play. However Falkirk did not have to wait much longer before they opened up their account as Darren Knox made a neat break, and after making good ground Stewart McCulloch was on his shoulder to take the scoring pass as he romped over for the opening try, which Call duly converted in the 14th minute.

The lead lasted only one minute as Peebles retaliated from the restart with very slack defending from Falkirk allowing Open Side Flanker Douglas Voas in for a soft try,with Stand--Off David Collins slotting over the conversion.

No doubt at all stung by that Falkirk countered,only five minutes later when their back division handled well for Outside-Centre Connor Faulds to feed his Right-Winger Gregor Ramsay just outside Peebles 22 metre line and he did very well in breaking through several tackles before crashing over for an unconverted try.

Keeping up their momentum Falkirk went further ahead near the half hour mark when sterling work from their forwards on Peebles five metre line produced quality possession which enabled Connor Faulds to break over for a well earned try,and from an almost identical scenario Falkirk’s bonus point was assured when the same man scampered through for his brace of tries in the 36th minute, again after a lengthy period of concerted pressure.

By contrast the opening third quarter proved a more tightly contested affair with Peebles asserting themselves much better and Falkirk certainly had to be on their toes as the visitors probed for any weaknesses.

That perseverence saw them breach the home side’s defence in the 68th minute when a break from Stand-Off David Collins was taken on by Right-Winger David Willis as he rounded Falkirk’s posts for a deserved try,which Collins promptly converted. Call converted a penalty for Falkirk on the 70 minute mark but Peebles went hell for leather at their opposites, and set the cat amongst the pigeons when their Scrum-Half Greg Raeburn jinked over for another try right at the end of regulation time.