Biggar’s Tennent’s National League 1 title hopes are all-but over after crashing to a narrow 29-26 defeat at home to Gala.
The result puts Gala top on 84 points, Heriot’s in second on 82, and Biggar on 77.
The Hartree Mill club knew they had to win all of the rest of their games, and while promotion isn’t impossible, it’s now looking decidedly unlikely.
Their final two games are at home, however, against Ayr on April 16 and Highland seven days later, so there is still a faint glimmer of hope – but their rivals would both need to lose games, and clash on April 16.
As it was, Biggar lost the game by three points, but three yellow cards meant they played over a third of the game with just 14 men.
With so much at stake this game was expected to be a thriller, and was in the balance until the final whistle.
Both sides scored four tries, so in addition to the league points won, both sides gained an extra point, with Biggar also gaining a losing bonus.
Biggar’s Robbie Orr made two telling tackles to prevent Gala from making a breakthrough, before scoring his side’s opening try, latching onto a pass from Chris Mulligan after the captain had made a 30-yard run. Euan Bogle added the conversion for a 7-0 lead.
The hosts then lost out as the restart from Gala was fumbled and ball played by a player in an offside position, with visiting stand-off Craig Dodds converting the penalty for 7-3.
When Gala No.8 Angus Dun was impeded, Ross Jackson was yellow carded and Biggar were down to 14.
The penalty kick to touch preceded a good take and lineout drive, which ended with Jack Easson touching down, stretching in front 8-7.
Biggar went back in front in 22 minutes when Gary Napier bulldozed his way over the Gala line, with Bogle tagging the points for 14-8.
With Jackson back, Biggar’s 15 were on the defensive, and on the half-hour mark they were reduced to 14 again, when Donald Voas was judged to have made a ‘no-arms’ tackle.
Gala used this to their advantage and Dodds crashed over before converting his try to take a 15-14 lead into the interval.
Biggar opened the second half well, putting pressure on Gala, and Conor Lavery exploited a gap to nip through and touch down for 19-15.
Although Voas rejoined the side, Biggar were again reduced to 14 when Jamie Orr was shown a yellow card.
Though they held out in the face of a Gala onslaught, flanker Liam Scott dotted down in the corner, which Dodds converted well for 22-19.
Orr returned to the fray but Gala’s centre John Turnbull and Biggar’s Andy Jardine picked up injuries.
Another Gala attack took play into the Biggar 22, and while initial surges were again held up, possession was crucially retained and a clever break by Fergus Johnston close to a ruck saw him skip inside the Biggar cover for what would prove to be the winning try, converted by Dodds for 29-19.
Biggar knew they had to come back, and this they did with a sustained passage of play, which saw Napier, Robbie Orr, Lavery, Voas, Craig Bachurzewski and others all make determined drives to the line, but each of them held up by a solid Gala defence.
Moving the ball wider paid off, with Lavery’s inside pass to Rowan Stewart seeing the winger crash over for a try, which Bogle converted for 29-26.
With some five minutes left, there was every chance that Biggar could grab another try or even a penalty, which would tie the scores.
Gala had been miserly in the number of penalties they had conceded, however, and that didn’t change.
The hosts did manage to break into the Gala half, with a scrum between half-way and the 22, so there was all to play for.
However, to Gala’s delight an error brought a final stoppage.
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