This was the longest trip of the season – up to Ellon. Brisk progress on the bus ensured we arrived on time for all teams to have a proper warm-up prior to the first match.
P4 fielded a squad of 8. Although missing a couple of regulars, we had a relatively strong side and were confident of a competitive performance. In the initial pool stages, County played strongly against a developing Garioch side through a combination of good support play, excellent offloading in the tackle and strong running, County came out winners 9-3. Next up were a 2nd Ellon development side. This was harder fought, but again, County came through by 9-4. The final game in the group stages was against a strong Mackie side that had also won their earlier 2 matches. With less than 2 minutes to play, County went ahead 3-2, however, with the last play, supported by a cheering local crowd - Mackie pulled it back to 3-3. As Mackie scored the first try in the game, they went through as group leaders. County progressed as runners-up to play against the Group B winners; Howe of Fife. This was a hard fought game, with Howe benefiting from some extremely good individual skills. County pulled through as winner by 5-3 taking them to the final against the same Mackie side played in the group stages. Despite excellent spirit, strong tackling, and continuous recycling of the ball from County, Mackie organisation, and size won through with County going down 3-6. Most encouraging from the rugby development standpoint was the improved positioning in both attack and defense.
After the long trip the P5s played well in the first game against Howe but still jaded by the long trip and early start, Howe dealt with this better and ran out 7-5 winners. The next tie against Mackie (red) saw the tackling we are used to and the running and handling skills that have been improving week on week coming to the fore, excellent support play and team work culminated in a 10-4 County win. The next tie against Ellon saw more of the same excellent skills on show from all players, County running up winners 9-2. So for second place finish in the league, it was a semi-final place against Mackie (black). A game with tough tackling and end to end play eventually ending in Mackie winning 2-3. It was a tough end to the day with County camped on the Mackie line during the dying moments of the game. Well done to all who travelled.
The P6s started off slowly against Highland, going down 0-1 at half time. The 2nd half saw County play much better rugby ending the game in a 1-1 draw. Due to Tournament rules, with Highland scoring first, this eventually cost us a place in the semi-finals. We played a lot better in the 2nd game against Garioch being 6-1 up when the game was called short due to a neck injury on the other team. The last game was a heavt defeat against a good Aberdeen Grammar side. We lost 0-5. Lack of tackling in the 2nd half cost several soft tries. Although the boys played well over the past few weeks, this was not one of their better days. Hoepfully we will see an improvement at the next weeks Marr Tournament.
The P7s started with their first (of 6) game against Grammar. The usual slow start was shown up by a scrappy first half with no real obvious winning team. County made amends in the 2nd half and came out winners. Our second game against Howe was, in the end, the deciding game of our day. We were on the pitch but not in mind during the 1st half resulting a score of 0-4. However, the players went out enthused and “won” the 2nd half 3-0 giving a final score of 3-4. Not the result we expected but on the day. Having been shocked by the Howe result, the team played Ellon next and were outright winners. The running lines were excellent and resulted in a pleasing win 4-3. Three tries were let in through too much relaxation when we were ahead. Our next game against Highland<
