Defensive Improvements Pay Off For Knox

In the second match of the morning, Knox were up against Berwick who had brought a big team up from just south of the border. Berwick had a great tussle with Lasswade which they just managed to squeeze a win out of, so Knox knew they needed to lift their game.

The game was tight for the first 5 minutes with strong defence on both sides keeping play in the middle of the park. However, Knox's defensive pressure paid off as Berwick dropped the ball and Cunningham hacked through. The ball popped up nicely and he jogged over unopposed for the first try which he converted.

Knox seemed to relax straight from the kick off, thinking the game was theirs, but this just let Berwick back in the game. A sloppy restart gave the ball to Berwick's pack, some weak tackling followed and their winger bolted through for a soft try.

Some stern words from the coaches hit home and Knox lifted their game. They started to control possession and become more physical at rucks.

They created a chance with an easy overlap and a gap for birthday boy Elliot to get a try, but the pass was too far ahead and the chance was gone. However, Knox had started to vary their game and put up a towering Garryowen with a great chase. Jack pounced on the bouncing ball and almost made it to the line, but with Green and Cunningham in support, he managed to pop it on to Cunningham who went over for a good try, again converting it himself.

Shortly afterwards, Cunningham burst through some weak tackling from short range to get his hat-trick, although he took a knock from an untidy slide through from a defending player.

Half time: Knox Academy 21 - Berwick 5

Knox lifted their game again in the second half with the pack becoming more dominant. Thomson was coming into the game more and more, making his power felt at rucks and on short bursts. Booth was connecting play well between backs and forwards and Duke, Eadie, Macfarlane and Martin were putting in some thumping tackles.

This effort told as they took a scrum against the head and Duke picked up quickly and went blind. A perfectly time offload to the looping scrum half Wright who then popped to Jack coming onto the ball at pace for the day's best score under the posts.

Berwick were still in the game though and a mix up in defence let their pacy left winger through for a score.

This sparked some life into Berwick who were determined to get more points, but Knox lifted the intensity of their defence even higher, much to the delight of their coaches and the big crowd who were shouting their support. Some big hits from Sked, Duke, Thomson and Dewar pushed their opponents back time and time again and eventually the ball came back to Knox who burst through some tired tackles for Cunningham to get the game's final score, his fourth, in the corner. The referee obviously thought this was too tough to convert and blew the final whistle.

Final score: Knox Academy 33 - Berwick 10

Overall, the gamble of playing on a slightly crispy pitch paid off as there were three good games and no injuries.

This was Knox's first game for 5 weeks and their first wins for a couple of months. The coaches were delighted to see the recent focus on tackling and defence had paid off with the big smiles on faces of players and parents at the end of the game. Hopefully it will encourage a few more back along to training and maybe some new faces to join what is becoming a very good team who have now won more games than they have lost this season.