Narrow loss...

With CQP sitting in eighth position in the league and Musselburgh in tenth it was obvious that both teams would view this game as a must win.
Heavy rain had lead to an early morning pitch inspection but the pitch was declared playable but the heavy surface made it unlikely that the conditions would be ideal for running rugby. Musselburgh kicked off with CQP facing towards the clubhouse. A few minutes after the kick off Musselburgh were awarded a penalty and the resultant kick was directed into touch about twelve metres from the CQP line. Musselburgh took their own ball successfully and then mauled over the CQP line to score in the corner. The conversion attempt was on target but fell short of the posts and Musselburgh had a five point lead with only four minutes played

Play continued and from a CQP penalty the ball was directed into touch but the resultant CQP line out throw was overthrown and Musselburgh got the ball back.

The game continued with Musselburgh dominating proceedings and having a definite advantage both in possession and territory. With twenty five minutes played Musselburgh scored again following sustained pressure on the CQP line. This time the conversion was successful and Musselburgh had a twelve point lead which on the basis of play was entirely justified. CQP were finding it very difficult to get into the Musselburgh half but with thirty minutes on the clock CQP made their first real foray into the Mudsselburgh half when Jonny Campion burst down the right wing at pace with Calum Dickson in support. As he got closer to the Musselburgh line Jonny passed inside to Callum who finished the move off successfully scoring about five metres in from the corner flag. Wayne Burrows attempted conversion hit the left upright and bounced back into play leaving Musselburgh with a seven point lead.

Shortly after this Musselburgh were awarded a kickable penalty but the attempt on the posts failed and the score remained at 12-5 to the visitors. Shortly after this saw CQP concede another penalty this one was slightly further from the posts and was directed into touch ten metres out from the corner flag.
CQP managed to resist Musselburgh's attempt to get another score and the half time whistle went with the visitors leading 12-5. Opinion on the touchline was that this score very much flattered CQP as given their territorial and possession advantage it would have been reasonable to expect Musselburgh to be much further ahead. That they were not could be put down to very determined CQP defending.

A feature of the first forty minutes had been CQP's consistent failure to properly secure their own ball from the line out the impact of this was that it didn't really matter whether it was CQP's throw in or not as the ball was likely to end up in Musselbugh's hands. A further feature was that when CQP did gain possession it was invariably in their own half leading on most cases to an attempt to clear the pressure by a downfield kick rather than running the ball out by hand which simply passed possession back to the visitors.

HT CQP 5 MUSSELBURGH 12

With six minutes of the second half played Musselburgh increased their lead following a penalty awarded in front of the posts to move the score to 15-5.

At this juncture CQP made a number of changes with David Irvine, Callum Spriddle and Andy Scott taking the field. Michael Downer went into the hooker spot and Fraser Paul went off. The first CQP line out throw however produced no change from what had happened in the first half.

CQP however now started to come more into the game ad after ten minutes added three points to their tally courtesy of a Wayne Barnes successful penalty. Ten minutes later CQP scored a second try from close range with Calum Dickson again getting the credit.

Musselburgh tried to regain their lead and nearly did so when an attempted clearance by Wayne Burrows inside the CQP in goal area was charged down. After consultation with the assistant referee play resumed with a twenty two to CQP.

Musselburgh did however regain the lead after they had been awarded a penalty inside the CQP half. Backchat from one of the CQP players saw the referee move the penalty ten further metres into the CQP half and this was enough to enable the Musselburgh kicker to get the ball over the bar.

CQP tried hard to get back on level terms but it was not to be and the game ended with a three point win for the visitors .

As stated earlier there is no doubt that the margin of victory could have been much higher if CQP had not defended as well as they did given that Musselburgh dominated the line out and probably had a slight edge in the set piece. CQP were therfore feeding off scraps for most of the afternoon.

FULL TIME CARTHA QUEENS PARK 15 (1 point ) MUSSELBURGH 18 (4 points ).

Next up for CQP is another trip down into the borders