Scottish Districts ..... 32 French Military ..... 29
INTERNATIONAL flanker Gordon Simpson made a try-scoring return to help the Districts edge out the French Military in a fiery battle at Old Anniesland.
He claimed the opening touchdown to prove to the Scotland management that he is hungry for a quick return to the Test scene after his injury problems.
Coach Rob Moffat watched his troops surrender a 19-3 lead to trail 29-25, before sealing the win with a late penalty try.
He said: ''We were in control, but lost concentration at the end of the first half and gave away two needless scores.
The Frenchmen broke the deadlock with an early penalty by stand-off Romian Teulet, but almost immediately Simpson took the Scots in front.
The ball was recycled and flashed across to the other side of the pitch where Simpson had only a handful of metres to run to the line. Luke Smith's conversion attempt was from the widest possible angle but he made it look simple. The Districts kept up the pressure and Smith squeezed through a mass of markers to bag the second try at the end of a move which he also launched.
The Frenchmen were stunned again two minutes later as Derek Stark strolled in under the crossbar in the wake of a quickly-taken lineout. Smith added the extra points to open up a gap of 16 points, but a major concentration lapse allowed the tourists back into the contest.
First, No.8 Remi Deltreuil powered over in a rolling maul, then full back Mickael ran in unmarked after a superb handling sequence close to the line. Teulet converted both from awkward angles to set up an all-action second half.
Smith slotted a penalty to ease the Districts' jitters, but centre Martin Benacloi pounced on a loose ball to get the vital first touch, with Teulet's kick putting the French in front again.
Smith struck with a penalty to snatch back the advantage for the Scots and lock Surirey St Remy seemed to have killed their hopes with another rolling-maul score, but the home brigade clinched the glory with the penalty try, goaled by Scott Welsh.
Scottish Districts - H Gilmour; D Stark, C Simmers, A Collins, J Kerr; L Smith, F Stott; R McNulty, S Scott, B Stewart, I Elliot, A Lucking, G Simpson, B Renwick, J Shaw. Replacements used: A Bulloch, S Welsh, C Little, M Waite.
French Military - M Chennavier; P Giroud, S Dupoux, M Benacloi, F Baudry; R Teulet, P Malie; R Moreau, J Djoudi, B Geyraud, D-S St Remy, J Thion, S Etchegoyhen, R Deltreuil, S Bohn. Replacements used: D Cech, M Forest, G Combes, F Conilh, J Daurat, T Algret, S Prat.
Scorers: Districts: Tries - Simpson, Smith, Stark, penalty try. Conversions - Smith 2, Welsh. Penalties - Smith 2. French Military: Tries - Deltreuil, Chennavier, Benacloi, St Remy. Conversions - Teulet 3. Penalties - Teulet.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article