With the new facilities at Roseburn not quite ready, Gordonian RFC headed to the back pitches of the national stadium to take on Murrayfield Wanderers RFC in the opening fixture of Tennents National division 3.
From the kick-off Gordonians put pressure on the home defence which lead to an early penalty, Mark Marchbank stepped up and kicked the away team into an early lead. Straight from the restart, the men from the granite city showed their intent to attack, stringing several phases together forcing Murrayfield to defend deeper and deeper. The pressure finally told when Tom Williams crossed on the 15 minute mark, Marchbank could not strike the conversion which would lead to a frustrating day for the stand-off. Rather than sit back on the lead, Gordonians continued to pile on the pressure with Callum Joss and Tom Williams crossing again, in a productive 10 minute spell. After 25 minutes Murrayfield finally started to gain ground and had a sustained period of pressure where they penned Gordonians in their own 22, and with the try line begging the winger knocked on to allow the away side the clear their lines and work their way up field. On the stroke of half-time Peter Johnston bagged the bonus point try for Gordonians but again the conversion was missed.
The opening 10 minutes of the second half saw Murrayfield Wanderers go on the offensive, wave and wave of attacks were repelled by a resolute away defence. Having soaked up the pressure Gordonians exerted some of their own, another controlled set of phases saw Corey Buchan, luckily, crossed the white wash due to some poor tackling for the home side. Murrayfield finally got on the score board, taking advantage of a poor exit from Gordonians, the home side strung a few phases together to score their only try of the afternoon. At this point Gordions were starting to lose their discipline giving away several penalties for offside and Blair Strachan deciding to take some liberties at scrum time which the referee didn't agree with. The referee finally had enough of the constant infringements and Tom Williams found himself yellow carded.
Whilst not having the best day with the boot, stand-off Mark Marchbank was having a solid game in attack and crossed for another Gordonian try, on as a substitute Ally Gill took over the kicking duties but could quite get the conversion on target. Once again Gordonians went on the offensive from the kick off and Sam Cooper, playing his last game for the club before leaving to work in Copenhagen, finished off a fine move in the corner. With Williams in the bin Gordonians packed down for a scrum, Sam Cooper stepped in to the front row breach which resulted in winger David Ilyine packing down in the back row to do his finest Jonny May impression, thankfully he managed to get is head and bind in the right place. Not wanting to miss out on the scoring Danny Osugo crossed the line in the dying minutes for the final score of the game.