The game was played in dry conditions. The journey to Peebles on the team bus had taken just under two hours as a result of hold ups on the Edinburgh bypass. The CQP selected team showed a considerable number of new faces reflecting the substantial number of players missing through injury or for personal reasons.

A look at the Peebles squad in the warm up period suggested that it would be likely that CQP would be outweighed in the set piece. It also appeared that Peebles would be fielding several more experience players than CQP. Early scrums demonstrated that Peebles would indeed have the better of the set piece and so it proved as Calum Dickson playing at scrum half had the unenviable task of trying to gather the ball on CQP put-in while the CQP scrum was being driven back. It therefore came as no surprise to find Peebles taking the lead following a five metre scrum. The try went unconverted and Peebles had a five point lead. CQP gradually forced their way into the game and gathered three points from a successful penalty converted by Andrew Guthrie the CQP number 10. Prior to this the Peebles stand off had had to be carried off when he sustained an injury in tackling CQP fullback Darren Knox. Shortly after this the same CQP player found his attempted clearance kick charged down but fortunately from a CQP perspective in a attempting to gather the ball it was knocked on. The CQP penalty had been scored after thirty one minutes but Peebles added their second try after thirty four minutes. This try was converted which left the score as 12-3 to the home team. Peebles then added a third try following some good passing down their left wing. The try which was scored and converted by the Peebles fullback Barber to move the score to 19-3. The deficit was reduced when Guthrie converted a penalty to bring CQP up to six points.

HT Peebles 19 CQP 6

Soon after the resumption CQP were reduced to fourteen players when Pat O’Brien was yellow carded for a mid air infringement. Shortly after this the scored moved to 26-6 when Peebles secured their fourth try which they converted. With ten minutes played in the second half CQP scored their first try courtesy of James Thomson the CQP number 8. The try was converted and the score moved to 26-13. Peebles followed this with a converted penalty to move the score to 29-13. CQP now substituted Scott Douglas on for Number 6 Ewan McKenzie. CQP moved the score to 36-18 before Peebles scored again to push the score up to 43-18 In the last move of the game Captain Stewart Hamilton intercepted a Peebles pass to race through and score under the posts.

FT Peebles 43 CQP 23.

This was never going to be an easy game for CQP but taking into account the number of players who were unavailable this was a commendable performance. Hopefully some of our missing experienced players will be back soon. As stated earlier Calum Dickson has to be commended for a first class performance at number 9.

Next up Hamilton Bulls at home on the 10th September.