Falkirk 39 Selkirk 26

Selkirk travelled to Falkirk with several regulars unavailable. Unfortunately, the captain, Neil Darling failed to recover from a leg injury sustained in the previous match against Peebles. Several younger players started and acquitted themselves very well. The Souters could not have had a more difficult start losing 13 points within the first 10 minutes. However, after some fine driving play by the forwards, Rob Taylor exploded through a ruck to score near the posts. David Cassidy who was captain for the day converted. Cassidy kicked well in a strong wind, scoring 11 points with 3 penalties and a conversion. Before half time and after some strong running from Fraser Harkness, Scott Hendrie continued his fine scoring run with a try in the corner. Selkirk started the second half well and Jock Renwick scored from a no.8 pick up near the Falkirk line and for the first time in the match Selkirk were ahead 16-15. The next 20 minutes were disappointing for the team and the coaches with some poor discipline and sloppy play. Falkirk scored 3 tries during this period and Selkirk were down 39-26 with 5 minutes remaining. To their credit, Selkirk pushed hard and Fraser Harkness crossed the line only to drop the ball as he attempted to get closer to the posts to make the conversion easier. It's a pity as this would have been 2 welcome points. However it's difficult to be too critical as Fraser has won so many other games for Selkirk over the past few years. It's Biggar at Philiphaugh on Saturday which will be another tough match but hopefully the injury situation will improve this week.   Photos thanks to Gordon Honeyman (Falkirk) and Grant Kinghorn.