On a fine Sunny day in the Fife countryside Stirling County were welcomed to the Howe of Fife Tournament. This was a round robin tournament giving all teams a long day of continued matches and the players as much game time as possible. The other visitors to the Tournament were Dunfermline, Ellon, Stewarts Melville, and Madras.
P4s
Stirling County P4’s took a squad of 10 players; their first match was against Ellon running out comfortable winners 8-1. That should have been a good warm up for the next match against Stewart Melville. But for some reason they were caught out. Very quickly by half time they found themselves down 1-5. After a gentle team talk Stirling came out fighting with better rucking, more aggression with some hard tackling. Quick ball out to the wings enabled Stirling to pull back the score, but Stewart Melville just held out for an 5-8 score line, which would count against Stirling later on. The positive was Stirling had arrived to play good hard and fast rugby. Next up was unknown Madras, but Stirling were up for it now and Madras was there for the taking. More hard tackling and quicker ball to wings enabled Stirling to win 5-2. Next up was Howe of Fife but they did not have an answer to Stirling’s hard tackling and good defensive line. Stirling pinning Howe back on their own try line for most of the game. Another 5-2 score line for Stirling, taking them into the final match against unbeaten Dunfermline. This was the match of the Tournament with both teams tackling like monsters and rucking for their lives. There was not much flowing rugby, but what there was came from Stirling but was very rare. A very close hard match that Stirling wanted to win more, to end their season on a winning note. 2-1 at half time, it came down to one of the very rare quality running passing moves to win the game. Handing out Dunfermline’s first defeat of the season and stopping them from winning the tournament. Unfortunately Stirling handed the winning trophy to Stewart Melville. It ended on a three way tie with Dunfermline, Stewart Melville and Stirling all on the same points. On count back Stewart Melville where winners and Dunfermline second. For once no medals for Stirling County, after want has been a very successfully and enjoyable season. The players were still smiling at the end of a hard but good day of rugby.
Great support as always, as it has been all season, big thank you. Good luck to all the players for next season now enjoy you’re well earned rest.
P5s
The P5 team went into this tournament exuding confidence following a great season and a good record from tournaments. The first match pitted the lads against a well-drilled team from Ellon. The match started off quite slowly with both teams suffering from travel fatigue. Stirling took the early advantage running in some impressive tries and feeling quite comfortable leading at half-time. Unfortunately, the tackling let us down with penalties given away all too often for high tackles and ball-targeting in the tackle. Stirling, however, remained in control, eventually winning 5-2 at full time.
Stirling’s second match came only minutes after the final whistle of the Ellon match and put us up against tournament favourites Stewart Melville. The lack of concentration in the first match, unfortunately, carried on into the first half of this match giving the opposition the opportunity to capitalise early on. Lagging behind by a couple of tries at half-time, Stirling began to play the running rugby which has been the hallmark of the P5s this season, leading to some great link-up play and eventually some scores. Unfortunately, the comeback came too late and Stirling lost the match 2-6.
After a break County were ready to take on Madras – a team which we had not faced all season. Both sides went into the match with uncertainty, mixed with confidence. This led to some great end-to-end running and some equally impressive tackling, with County finally finding their feet to knock Madras off of theirs. Special mention has to go to the perfectly executed ‘number 4 pivot’ move, which not only used all players in the team, but included angled runs, a dummy run and superb support play to leave even the Madras supporters cheering on a textbook manoeuvre – move of the season by a mile! With all the excitement, neither side could quite take the upper hand, resulting in an exhilarating 5-5 draw at the final whistle.
Match four saw County take on the home side of Howe of Fife. Stirling were quite rightly upbeat after their performance against Madras and carried on their scoring sensation well into the second half of this match. Again, both sides were well matched and the flair of the attack was equalled only by crunching tackles. Coming from behind, Stirling came back to level the scores at 5-5 and suddenly a win was within their grasp. The time caught up with County, however and the scores stayed the same by full-time – if only the second half was a minute longer…
The final match of the day, tournament and season was against Dunfermline. Every member of the team had given their all throughout the day and fatigue was starting to set in. This showed with a couple of extremely fast Dunfermline players proving just too fast to be caught. However, going into half time 2 tries down was not enough to dampen the spirit or dent the confidence of this team-playing mature group of lads. The tackles came in fast and very hard in the second half with County showing the opposition that they weren’t prepared to roll over for anyone. Again, County came back with every player making yardage with ball in hand. With 2 tries disallowed, frustration set in – but this only made Stirling even more determined to score running in 2 well-worked tries following several phases of play. A late comeback was not enough in the end, however, with County suffering a 2-5 defeat.
The final rankings in the tournament saw favourites Stewart Melville take the gold and Dunfermline take silver. That put Stirling County in third position, with the two teams which had beaten County taking the medals. The lads should be extremely proud of how they played at Howe and, indeed, all season. The coaches have seen a huge improvement in the squad, especially since the Dublin Tour and we have all commented on their maturity, team spirit and work-ethic in recent months. Well done lads and have a great summer.
P6s
The first match was against Ellon who we’d beaten twice recently at their own Tournie and at our Tournie, so we were pleased to be getting what, on paper, should be a good warm-up match. We started well and immediately went 2-0 up with some strong passing and direct running. The boys immediately sensed a weak Ellon team and dominated the remainder of the match. Final score was 8-0 and a score line which did represent our dominance.
Next up was Stew Mel. This was a far tighter affair and despite some strong play, we were soon 0-2 down within the 3rd minute of the first half. We managed to get a try back before half time to reduce the deficit though. A strong half time talk and the boys went out re-engaged. Their performance had changed and we soon could see a more dominant County team taking the power of the ruck to Stew Mel. This upset Stew Mel and as a result they started spilling the ball and losing it at the ruck. We pounced on the chances and controlled the remainder of the game. Several tries later and we won 5-2. A great turn-around in performance by all of the boys.
Next up was Madras who we’d not played this season and so were unknowns. A very shaky first half resulted in a 0-0 score line; primarily due to us trying too hard, spilling the ball at the last pass or silly errors. The half-time break was used, again, to reinforce the messages to the boys. It worked too! It was a different match in the 2nd half and we reverted back to winning the ball through strong forward play, passing the ball out to the wings and very strong tackling by all. A good 5-0 victory. The biggest challenge awaited us; Howe. Everyone guessed this would be the decider given our recent match history against them (W1, D1, L1). Howe started stronger and their 2 fast backs initially caused problems. A close period of play led to them scoring down a wing; 0-1. The boys called the crash ball at the restart. Two passes later and a very strong run directly through their defence and we were level at 1-1. The remainder of the game then was played primarily in Howe’s 22 – with County and Howe playing a tight game. The number of try saving tackles was magnificent from both sides. We looked to be dominating by holding Howe in their own 22 but couldn’t capitalise on this. After some nail-biting moments, the whistle went resulting in a draw.
Our final match was against Dunfermline who’d pushed Stew Mel and Howe earlier on the in day. Everyone was looking at the scoreboard to determine our position in the group. Just before we went on, Stew Mel out-played Howe and notched up (in our eyes) a shock win. This meant we needn’t worry about try difference, just get a win. And so with trepidation, we started against Dunfermline. The whole team looked nervous early on and we missed some chances, but our strength shone through with 2 scores in the first half. We then pushed the performance harder in the 2nd half and stretched it out to 5-0. The whole squad played exceptionally well throughout the day – rucking was brilliant and gave us the advantage across each match of the day. Our backline used the ball wisely for most of the day and notched up the majority of the tries. Our defence was exceptional – the tackling kept us in all of the games and as you can see from the stats – we were rock solid. Final figures for the day P5, W4, D1. Tries for 24, Tries against 3.
Enjoy the title boys and get a rest before the new season starts in August.
P7s
Our first game was against Ellon, always a tough game but the boys passed the ball well and ran straight a couple of times. The result of the straight running was 2 tries and a win to start the day.
Our next game was against Stew Mel who had beaten us 2-4 the week before at Currie. The first half saw some good rugby from both teams and a 3-3 score line. The second half saw Stew Mel score early on and County knew they had to dig deep. The tackling improved, the forwards stated to ruck and we scored twice to take the win 5-4.
Next up Madras who were strong and well organised. They recycled the ball well and had some very strong runners. County unfortunately had shut down slightly during the break between games and never matched their earlier standard. Confusion reigned at the end of this match with the referee reporting a 2-2 draw when Madras had actually won. County informed the ref he was wrong and Madras was awarded the points.
Howe as usual were a very strong team and the first half saw some great tackling in defence and unlucky in attack, at half time the score was 0-0 and again the County boys knew that if the were going to have any chance of winning the tournament they had to beat Howe. The team raised their game and moved the ball beautifully from side to side probing for the gaps, they scored 3 great tries to take the win.
The position after all teams playing four games was Madras and County had lost 1 game each, all the others had lost 2 or more. County were ahead of Madras by having a better try difference, by 3 tries.
Our final game was Dunfermline and after a very disjointed 1st half it was 1-1. Dunfermline scored at the start of the 2nd half and again the boys had a mountain to climb. They got back to level and then the game was stopped for an injury, and in the parallel match, Madras finished off Ellon 6-1. We had to win by 3 clear try’s to win the tournament. County raised their game again and chased down the ball for every second that was left. They managed to score 2 more tries and were pressing for another when the ref decided to blow the whistle to end the game. A 4-2 win and a draw in try difference with Madras, but Madras had scored more tries so were the winners.
A great finish to the P7s final Mini match. It has been a pleasure coaching the P7s this year and we a have great hopes for their future in S1 and beyond.
