On a sunny but windy Saturday at Penecuik RFC, West End Warriors claimed a win in the Scottish Grand Final in dramatic fashion, with a try from Josh Walters in Golden Point extra time.
Last season’s Grand Final winners Edinburgh Eagles wasted a great chance to score in the opening minutes and it was the Warriors who opened the scoring on eight minutes, when a looping cut out pass found Calum Weir out wide to score.
Following back to back penalties, it was the Warriors who score again on eleven minutes when Walters ball out the back to Craig Colvin saw him cut through Edinburgh’s defence, draw the fullback and feed the supporting Liam Tighe to score under the posts. Colvin added the goal to make it 10-0.
On 25 minutes, West End Warriors looked like they were starting to run away with things as a wide ball found Euan Ward, who danced around two defenders to touch down, 14-0.
On the half hour, Max Filby took a crash ball from Lewis Clarke to get the Eagles scoreboard ticking over. George Shannon added the extras to reduce the deficit to 14-6.
The Warriors restored their lead on 36 minutes when Andrew Brown took a short ball from Niall Hall to score. Ciaran Callaghan taking over kicking duties made it 22-6.
With half time approaching, Eagles hooker Clarke went over from dummy half, with Shannon again successfully converting to give a score of 20-12 at the break.
Playing with the wind at their backs in the second half, Edinburgh opened the scoring on 43 minutes when big Fijian Orisi Waibuta fended off three would be tacklers on a powerful twenty metre run to the line. Shannon’s third success of the afternoon narrowed the gap to 20-18.
52 mins in, Corrie Dicks dotted down in the corner for West Warriors to extend the lead again, and when Tighe spun out of the tackle to score his second on 57 minutes, there was again daylight between the teams. Callaghan’s second conversion made it 30-18 with just over a quarter of the game to go.
The Eagles weren’t ready to rollover just yet though and on 62 minutes, there was no stopping Andrew Sweenie from 2 metres out. Shannon’s goal made it a one score game, 30-24.
It looked like time was going to beat the capital-based side as they pushed to level up the game, making unforced errors in the process. On 76 minutes however, it was a mistake from the Warriors which gave Edinburgh the ball 20 metres out and potentially one last roll of the dice.
On tackle three, scrum half Pete Burns picked up from dummy half and burst over from 10 metres. Seemingly feeling no pressure at all, the ever dependable Shannon cooly slotted over to tie the game at 30-30.
A set a piece after the restart, the final whistle went and we had a tie. This probably would’ve been a fair result in normal circumstances but this was the Grand Final and a winner was needed.
Edinburgh’s Stef Paton won the toss and, unsurprisingly, elected to continue with the strong breeze in his sides’ favour. The Warriors kicked off the first period off Golden Point, forcing Edinburgh to bring it off their own line.
The defending champions made good progress to halfway but a loose pass was swooped upon by the experienced Walters, who raced 50 metres, evading the Eagles cover defence in the process, to win the game for the West End Warriors 34-30. A fantastic game for the neutral and great advert for Rugby League in Scotland.
Warriors:
Tries – Tighe 2, Brown, Dicks, Weir, Ward, Walters.
Goals – Callaghan 2, Colvin
Eagles:
Tries – Clarke, Burns, Filby, Sweenie, Waibuta
Goals – Shannon 5
