West of Scotland are bonus point winners over St Boswells

West of Scotland enjoyed a satisfying win over St Boswells in their last home fixture of the year at Burn brae on Saturday.
West's Angus Thomson tests out the St Boswells defence (pic by John Cameron).West's Angus Thomson tests out the St Boswells defence (pic by John Cameron).
West's Angus Thomson tests out the St Boswells defence (pic by John Cameron).

Despite the soaking drizzle, West’s state of the art surface allowed a fast accurate game to be played at a time of year when a slog in the mud is the norm.

West dominated the scrums from the off and a good break from Angus Thomson set up Nicky Sutcliff to cruise in for the opening try. Dru Nicholson converted.

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Nicholson chipping forward beautifully to Calum Booth as West broke out of their own half and two passes later Fergus Robertson ran in under the posts. Nicholson converted again and West were looking comfortable at 14-0.

St Boswells won a penalty, kicked to touch then caught and drove and although West initially defended prop Lawlor forced in to score and Ponton converted.

West then made the most of the predictable bounce of the synthetic surface when a rapid breakout by Booth saw him chip over the defender, collect from the bounce and run in for a classy try, Nicholson again converting.

However West then threw an interception to St Boswells, Wichary running it in and Grant converting to make the half-time score 21-14.

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St Boswells were fastest out of the blocks in the second period, scrum half Grant again sneaking in off the back of a driving maul. This time he missed the conversion but it was closer at 21-19.

West weren’t having it and after pegging away at the St Boswells defence, Mark Sim found an overlap and rounded the defence to dot down under the posts for West’s bonus point. Dru Nicholson wasn’t going to miss and it was 28-19.

After some hard graft at the breakdown, West won a series of scrum penalties and Nicholson split the defence with an elegant delayed pass, Nicky Sutcliffe rounding off the move with his second and West’s fifth try of the game.

Next up on Saturday is Carrick away when West will be looking to reverse the result of the first game against the Ayrshire side.