After the disappointment of the league opening loss away to Leith on the 3rd of September, the Reds were looking to get their league campaign back up and running away to Forrester, who were off the back of a 32-10 win against Duns RFC.

Haddington were without their Vice Captain and full-back, Andrew Durkin meaning Ben Moffat shifted in from the wing to full back and Freddie Cunningham was brought in for his first league start of the 2022-23 campaign after a short injury lay off. Dan Witko also made the shift into the forwards with John Gibson giving him only his second start in the pack.

Haddington started the game strongly with the forwards recycling quick ball to allow fly-half Donald Bathgate to release the backs. In a well-worked move, full-back Ben Moffat burst through the Forrester defence and went in under the sticks. Bathgate adding the conversion with only five minutes played.

With the Reds deep into their own half, Bathgate managed to put a great kick in behind the Forrester full-back. With a solid kick chase from the Reds, the full-back was under a bit of pressure but managed to safely clear his kick to touch. With the lineout won and play taken just outside of the 15-meter line, the Reds darted backdown the blindside with Moffat nearly going in for his second try of the day had it not been for the solid Forrester defence. However, it didn’t take Haddington long to get back into the Greens half and after some great phase play, Captain Connor Munro was on hand to cross the whitewash. Bathgate slotted the conversion to allow the Reds to take the lead by 0-14.
Forrester managed to get the score board moving in the right direction for the home club, with fly-half Graeme Dudgeon stepping up to convert the penalty for the Greens and reduce the gap to 3-14.

Just after the twenty-minute mark, the Reds were awarded a penalty and Bathgate was able to extend the Haddington lead to 3-17. Bathgate was up again and maintained his stats for the day with a penalty to extend the Reds lead to 3-20.

Forrester finished the first half strongly by utilising their driving maul from the lineout, which allowed John McMillan to go over and reduce the deficit to 8-20. Unfortunately, Graeme Dudgeon was unable to add the extras meaning Haddington finished the first half 8-20 up.
After the fantastic start of the first half, the Reds were looking to do the same after the break. However, it took until the 55th minute mark for Haddington to get back on the score board, again through the boot of Bathgate after being awarded a penalty.

After sustained pressure on the Greens twenty-two-meter line, Forresters managed to break through the middle of the park and get themselves deep into the Reds half. However, some fantastic defence from Haddington resulted in a turnover and Bathgate was able to feed Freddie Cunningham who sprinted into the Forrester half and was able to get the offload away to outside centre Kyle Hamilton to go over in the corner. Bathgate was on hand again to slot the difficult conversion to make the scores 8-27 to Haddington.

After the game, Assistant Coach John Gibson said: [i]“It was a tough game in the forwards with Foresters being the bigger pack, however Haddington stood shoulder to shoulder and stopped the Foresters big runners from breaking the gain line. Overall Haddington as a team outran their opponents and came out victorious with a well-deserved, 8-27 win. It was great to see the travelling support and Haddington youth rugby now coming through, with fifteen of the nineteen players all coming through the youth section of Haddington Rugby Club. Making his debut was Ross Morrison, a 3rd generation of Morrison's to keep the family history going.”

Next up, Haddington host Duns RFC this Saturday at Neilson Park with a 2pm kick off. Please come along and support the club and the community.