Biggar Rugby Club 20-5 Melrose: Hartreemill men brush off disappointment of three-point SRU penalty by winning fourth straight league game

Biggar Rugby Club players brushed off the disappointment of being handed a three-point deduction by impressively disposing of Melrose 20-5 in Saturday’s Tennent’s National Division 1 clash.
Donald Voas scores Biggar's second try in the win over Melrose (Pic by Ian Conn)Donald Voas scores Biggar's second try in the win over Melrose (Pic by Ian Conn)
Donald Voas scores Biggar's second try in the win over Melrose (Pic by Ian Conn)

Biggar – so cruelly denied a title win and promotion when the 2019-20 season was declared null and void by the SRU due to coronavirus restrictions – again fell foul of the governing body when it imposed a three-point sanction for Biggar being unable to fulfil the previous week’s fixture against Ayr due to a shortage of fit players.

But the Harteemill men posted a fourth league win out of four thanks to two first half penalties by captain Andy Jardine and second half tries by Michael Girdler and Donald Voas, both of which were converted by Jardine, before league leaders Melrose scored a late consolation try.

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"Our determination to win the league given what happened last time has been evident in all our games so far,” Biggar secretary Mike Booth told the Carluke and Lanark Gazette.

"It was a tremendous performance on Saturday, great game to watch. We dominated in the scrum – which I didn’t expect against Melrose – and played with heart.

"We have laid it on the line and said we’re back to win it again.

"The three-point deduction is disappointing but basically the SRU are saying if you can’t field a team it doesn’t matter how many injuries you’ve got.

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"We didn’t want to hurt inexperienced players who would have been playing in the front row, which is fraught with danger.

“I personally don’t think it’s worth appealing because we’re not going to get anywhere with it. If we do appeal it’s doubtful we’ll get our three points back.”

Biggar, fourth with 16 points from four games, visit fifth placed Kelso in the league this Saturday, KO 3pm.

Booth said: “From now on they’re all big games in my view and this is another big one for us.

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"If we hadn’t won against Melrose having lost three points the heads could have gone down.

"But I think because we did win it the players were saying: ‘Right, three points against us doesn’t matter, win this game and move onto the next one’.

"You could hear that shout coming from our captain – Jardine – on Saturday.”

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