In the second half, GHA ran away with the match but, up until the 39th minute, it was evenly poised with the visitors from Glasgow only leading 19-12 against their East League Division One opponents. GHA notched their fourth try of the day on the st
roke of half-time through hooker Des Ziola to increase their lead to 24-12 and the score really knocked the stuffing out of Broughton. Nevertheless, Wells and Co can be proud of the way they stuck to their task all afternoon.
The skipper said: "I think we benefited a lot from having played Boroughmuir last year and having done quite well against them. It meant the guys went into this game not being scared of the opposition and we had more belief in our ability. I think their class showed a little bit in the end, but when we scored the two tries in the first half we had them slightly rattled and the effort from the guys cannot be faulted. This is what the cup is all about and we all had a very enjoyable afternoon testing ourselves against a top side."
The skipper was part of a superb effort by Broughton's pack against a GHA eight which included prop Jon Welsh fresh from starring for the Scotland Club International team in their win in Wales last week. Broughton No.8 Sandy Urquhart was the stand out player on the park, with the big Kiwi making some crunching tackles and causing the GHA defence problems, while 36-year-old prop Duncan Nicolson was as effective as ever.
"We all know that if Sandy wanted to he could play at a much higher level than Broughton, but he enjoys playing social rugby and being part of this club, and that is great for the rest of us. He leads by example and would not have looked out of place in the GHA pack," Wells added.
Broughton got off to the worst possible start on Saturday when they conceded a converted try by Ziola after less than two minutes, but they fought back and tied the scores at 7-7 seven minutes later. Back-row Adam McFarlane finished a neat forwards move well with scrum-half Dan Arrandale converting the extras and all of a sudden the crowd began to think it might not just be one way traffic all afternoon.
Indeed, Broughton were lifted by the score and continued to pressure and although GHA regained the upper hand and went 19-7 ahead after a quarter of the match the home players did not let their heads go down.
A nice move involving young BATS product Craig Hawthorne, who was playing at stand-off and showed some good touches at times, saw centre Nick Keenan dive over for Broughton's second try in the 24th minute. This time Arrandale's conversion attempt hit the upright.
Keenan had to go off six minutes later with a leg injury, but Broughton continued to have good field position for the next ten minutes without adding to their tally.
However, the giant-killing dream effectively came to an end right at the end of the half when a well-worked GHA maul was too powerful for the Wardie men and Ziola touched down.
After the break, the visitors five more tries through centre Chris McKay, winger Rory Watson, second-row Andy Williamson, full-back Jono Wright and centre Martin Dunn, but it was Broughton who took all the plaudits.
At full-time GHA coach Roddy Moir, said: "I thought Broughton played very well and took it to us up front, but we just had more behind the scrum. We didn't perform as well as we can, but Broughton must take the credit for that and I wish them well for the future."
Scorers: Broughton: Tries: McFarlane, Keenan.
Con: Arrandale.
GHA: Tries: Ziola 2, Sutherland, Watson 2, McKay, Williamson, Wright, Dunn.
Cons: Noonan 6.
Broughton: M Pannell; J Harper, N Keenan, D Heelan, J Beaton; C Hawthorne, D Arrandale; J Wells, D Pyper, D Nicolson, S Smith, P Tyson, A McFarlane, S Urquhart, M Smith.
Subs used: G Wilson, K Mohammed, L Baxter, J Gladwin.
GHA: J Wright; R Watson, C McKay, M Dunn, R McClymont; J Noonan, P Jericevich; J Welsh, D Ziola, J Coffey, A Williamson, R Jenkins, J Paine, D Channey, D Sutherland.
Subs used: J Clark, N Cassie, A Rushforth, P Harkins.
The full article contains 788 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
