P7 Report
Firstly thanks to all the parents who organised lifts for the teams to West of Scotland in Milngavie. With 23 squad members available, two teams Castle and Monument were selected. Castle were the stronger of the two on paper with more experience, but don't let that fool you!
The format of the day came down to Castle playing the oppositions A team to start and this was a game which could have gone our way if we had remembered how to ruck and run hard. Unfortunately, by the time the players had woken up to this it was too late and West had scored twice to win the first 15 minute game 2 to 0.
Monument were next up against the oppositions B team, and whether this was because of the game that had gone before, or because they felt themselves to be the weaker team with something to prove, they started and finished strongly winning their allotted 15 minutes 6 to 0.
It was then decided that West would mix their two teams up for two games of 10 minutes against the existing County sides.
Castle showed up much better in this game, starting to ruck and ensure that the structure remained in place throughout. A win 3 to 1 resulted.
Monuments 10 minutes against a further mixed side from West saw them play a very good rucking game, and if the game had gone on a bit longer the result could have been a win but a draw of 1 to 1 was probably a fair reflection.
The final two games involved the coaches selecting what they thought was County's A side and B side who were to play West's A and B Side in 10 minute games.
First up were the B side who with some of our newest recruits and one or two older heads showed that they had learnt a lot even just over the previous few games, and with some excellent rucking and support play won 1 to 0.
The last game with the A side was a different story. With missed tackles and a few player isolating runs, West were able to take advantage and won 2 to 0.
The majority of the players played well and it was very dificult to single out a single player for mention much less tackler of the day, but for probably one of his most consistent games in both attack and defence, playing for Mounument and the B Team, the award goes to Peter Grayburn.
P6 Report
County were able to put out 2 teams against Wests, who also spit their squad into equal teams. There was some great rugby on show from both clubs, with great passing despite the heavy pitch conditions.
The Castle team were captained by Matt MacKinnon and he was the orchestrator of some fantastic running rugby. The first game was won 5-1 and then followed up with a 6-2 win in the second match. Harry MacKenzie was in prolific scoring form, touching down for 5 tries during the morning. David Cartwright distributed well at scrum half to get the back line going and Jack Wilson showed some great speed on the wing.
It was particularly pleasing to see strong tackling and excellent support play in both matches, after lots of good work in training recently. Hamish Gornall carried on from last week, hammering into tackles and consistently stealing ball from tackled players. Niall Teehan rucked strongly and Cammie Reid-Thomas supported well. In defence, Joe Clayson and Evan Muir both created pressure and also made try saving cover tackles.
Captained for the 1st time by Finlay Macdonald, the Monument team took to the field against West in the other 2 x games. In the first match, County go off to a slow start and were soon 1-0 behind with a good move along the back line by their opponents and finally scoring in the corner. Gradually the team began to sort out their defence and by half time had gained the lead 2-1. Continuing in the second half, County scored a further 2 x tries to conceding 1, running out winners 4-2. This display showed great endeavour by the side to confront their opponents higher up the pitch and put in some splendid tacking and rucking.
The second match was a very even affair with both sides trading tries. The defensive line by County proved to be weaker in this match, with a number of missed tackles leading to easy tries for West. Down by 5-2 late on the second half, County began to show more drive drive to put things right and finished the game scoring a further 2 x tries, but narrowly missed out on a few others by some strong West defence. Learning lesson for the team clearly in making tackles a priority from the outset of the game.
The fixture was finished off with the teams mixed up for a final round of matches. In the first match County played some outstanding rugby. Strong defence gave them a platform to launch a series of expansive attacking moves. The outstanding try was started by Evan Muir near the County line and moved across both wings until Evie Wills burst through to take the ball at speed for a try. In all, County ran in 6 tries without reply.
Final match of the day was a great advert for winning matches through strong defensive play. The team, as one, had learnt to lay a high, single defensive wall, bolstered by some great tackles that clearly upset their opponents. Quick counter rucking and ripping the ball by the tackler once they had regained their feet resulted in County scoring freely from all over the pitch, running out winners by a very impressive 7-1 victory. Good to see a number of the newer members of the squad come on impressively in these games, particularly Tom Graham-Marr, Brian & Niall Teahan & Jack Wilson.
This was an excellent performance against a strong West of Scotland squad. The County players are training well and working hard for each other. Matt Mackinnon takes the award for Tackler of the Day for a series of pile driving tackles.
P5 Report
There was a superb turn out from the Stirling County RFC Under 10's at West of Scotland RFC today with 19 County players clearly very keen to get their name on the team sheet and to have some game experience ahead of the December close down. With only 12 West players being available on the day, the two sets of coaches agreed to a round robin format involving four teams of six and one team of seven - with County being allowed to rotate their teams at half time.
First game up, and a pitch that was just 22 metres wide! This was nowhere near enough for the running rugby County are used to being able to play and the narrowness of the playing area led to unnecessarily compressed and congested areas and thereby poor quality ball for both teams. An effective rucking style was evident from County but so were some early signs of loose tackling with West scoring two tries from a speedy centre who found space wide left and who met little tackling resistance. Shirt grabs and players keeping their shoulder and arms away from contact does not make for great tackles. This was stressed at half time as the first County team went in 2-0 down. Out came the next County team knowing what they had to do (i.e. defend better and use the extra 8 metres width which we negotiated with our hosts). County showed a better shape to their back line in this half and this soon cut loose after good handling in central areas led to two good opportunities to score - which the team did on both occasions. West then produced a score themselves and the match ended as a 3-3 draw.
Second game up, and the County team who ended the first match started where they had left off. Better structure and well-channelled agression in the break downs was always going to be a recipe for success and positive play all round led to a 2-0 half time lead. It could have been more but some runs ended up becoming dead ends or with off-loads that came as a surprise or else the ball didn't come out of the contact at all! Into the second half and the third County team were raring to go having sat out three halves. Within seconds, this team made their intentions pretty clear and that was to "play it simple" - carrying the ball forward, hitting the spaces and passing the ball wide and well - which was great to watch and led to three more scores for County. The final score in this match was 5-0 to County.
Last game with West after a couple of County-on-County matches, and this proved to be the hardest of the lot with each team knowing what to expect and what to do to improve. In County's case, the main issues were to do with getting the height and impact of their tackles right and avoiding targeting the ball carriers arms. For West, they needed more width and structure to their play, to avoid coming in from the sides of rucks and to stop playing the ball on the ground. Both sides did their best on these fronts and this provided a good contest and spectacle for the spectators. Strong runs from County players through the central areas, excellent passing and scanning to find support players was really encouraging to see. This was the best game to watch from a coaches perspective and West more than played their part in this. Two scores each and it was to be the team who could dig deepest and hold their nerve to win this game. Thankfully, this was to be County who's tackling held out sufficiently for a 3-2 victory.
All in all, a positive day's rugby and a sound effort by all the County players. Special mention goes to Max Williamson, Fraser Adams, Ewan Moore and Rory Duncan for their runs which often led to scores or to significant gains in territory before recycling the ball. Also, to Ben Cooke, Matthew Hannigan and Sol Jamroz for their focused approach generally - with Ben being "King of the Rucks". Lastly, and for their tackling display, Ben Yarrow, Iona Kelly and Oscar Clarke all deserve great credit for their efforts to win possession from good tackles
P4 Report
Once again we had 20 players in two squads playing at West of Scotland on Sunday. The opposition was purely West An and West B. Both SCRFC squads play really well against very strong and big opposition. The key to the success was holding the shape and strong tackling by all parties.
The match results are as follows;
SCRFC Squad A led by Matthew drew their first match 6 all, with Matthew and Dugald running in the points. They then played West A and beat them 6 points to 3. Again strong tackling and rucking by Finn, Natasha and Ryan secured this impressive win. The squad was structured and kept pushing and especially in the first match when they were 6 points to 4 down with only a few minutes to go they dug in and pulled out a draw. Dan and Lewis Cowie and Ferguson played strongly and drove in the rucks to win the ball back for the team.
SCRFC Squad B led by George played West B in their first match and won a hard fought match with strong rucking and tackling on both sides by 6 points to 2. The key here again was maintaining the shape and using the width of the pitch to go around the larger West side. The second match against West A was again a close contest which SCRFC won by 6 points to 4. Tackling was great and Ollie, Craig and Kyle all led by example. Niall and Cameron ran in some great points and always George led by example.
The coaches overall were impressed by the commitment of all the players with Gabriel, Laura, Robb, Dillon and Alex all playing an active role in securing the wins for the squads.
The two squads then played each other which I think all would agree was a tense affair and very closely matched. It was Squad A that ran in winners of this match.
Overall well done to all players and for the support of the parents and coaches especially much appreciated.
P3 Report
Another good result:
6-3 (Daniel 4 Toby 2)
1-3 (verses P4) Ethan1
3-1 Daniel 2 Rory1
2-1 Daniel 2
Daniel Man of the match 8 tries ; Toby not far behind and Rory kept position well
Daniel and Toby in the first game were on fire both with two excellent tries.
Team was; Duncan; Nick; Ethan; Harry; David; Daniel, Rory, Murray, Toby
