Hamilton 1st XV
Hamilton 1st XV 43 – Dumfries 1st XV 7
This was always going to be a difficult away fixture against the high-flying Bulls side. To begin with, the weather conditions were atrocious – withe heavy rain and a driving wind. To add to Saints’ problems, hopes of a Saints’ recovery from their current injury woes suffered a cruel blow even before the match began, when centre Michael Rennie injured a hamstring in the warm-up – prmpting a quick reshuffle of the 1st & 2nd XVs.
Two minutes into the game Hamilton scored an unconverted try and three minutes later they got another which was converted. Kenny Henderson was sent to the sin bin and while he was off Hamilton scored their 3rd try which fortunately was not converted. All that in just the first 15 minutes.
There was some hope for Dumfries when Martin Smith set up John Carlisle for a score which he then converted to bring the score to 17 : 7. But the hopes were short-lived. One minute later the home team got another try. Hamilton lost a player to the sin bin but still managed to score another 2 tries before half time then 2 more in the second half.
The Saints pack battled hard against the powerful and more experienced Bulls
The positive aspects were the Saints never gave up and kept going to the bitterly cold end, there were outstanding performances by Finlay Miller and Daniel Henderson and it was good to see Graeme Gemmell back in Saints colours.
Squad ; Graeme Gemmell, Andrew Wilson, Craig Bryson, John Carlisle, Martin Smith, Kenny Henderson, Finlay Miller, Craig Goldie, James Jackson, Adam Prentice, Richie Walker, Stuart Kennedy, Nathan De Pasqual, Daniel Henderson, Ross Mawdesley, Ben Radley, Jack Johnstone and Dougie Crichton.