The day was miserable, windy and wet. The standard of rugby reflected this. Poor handling and tackling and poor decision making by Gala.
Kelso played the poor conditions much better than Gala and although Gala had a large majority of the possession they were unable to capitalise on this.
Within 9 minutes Dean Keddie successfully converted a penalty from about 35 metres out giving Gala a three point lead.
Despite sustained pressure it took Gala a further 18 minutes before they took advantage when the ball was moved along the backs to Andrew Mitchell who dived/slid over the line. This try was unconverted but took the score to Kelso 0 Gala 8.
A further dearth of scoring culminated two minutes into injury time in the first half when Gala were awarded a penalty 22 metres out in front of the posts. Gala fly half, Dean Keddie successfully converted this adding 3 points to the Gala total.
Seven minutes into injury time in the first half after two penalties near the Gala line, Andrew Tait the Kelso scrum half forced himself over the line to score for Kelso. This was unconverted and took the half time score to:
Kelso 5. Gala 11
It was difficult to find the stoppage time in the first half to justify 7 minutes injury time.
Within two minutes of the restart Kelso charged down a very poor attempted clearance kick on the Gala 5 metre line. This resulted in the forwards going over for a further Kelso try which was converted by Craig Dods the Kelso fly half taking Kelso into the lead 12 - 11.
Gala were gaining repeated advantage and penalties from scrums as they pushed the Kelso pack all over the pitch. There were some unusual decisions by Gala in not using the forward strength and opening the play to the backs several times unsuccessfully. One penalty was even taken quickly, and resulted in a Gala knock on.
The Kelso coach solved the problem with the Kelso scrum when their prop was yellow carded and the coach approached the referee to say the prop who had been substituted earlier was injured and they would have to resort to uncontested scrums.
Kelso gained from this when 4 minutes into injury time they were awarded a scrum on the Gala 5 metre line. Being uncontested this gave possession to the Kelso pack and allowed their wing forward Kevin Dryden who crashed over. This was converted by Craig Dods taking the final score to:
Kelso 19. Gala 11
Gala will need to put in a much improved performance against Heriots next week at Netherdale.