Under 16s success at St Andrews

Sunday saw us make the trip to Madras in St Andrews to play a round robin over 5 games of 15 mins each against other teams from the region with the overall winner qualifying to next year’s national bowl.

The team are not known for their fast starts but today they did, starting well in securing a hard fought win against Blairgowrie by 1 try to 0 (Jamie), defending their line in the closing minutes to prevent an equalising score before comfortably defeating local rivals Kirkcaldy by 2 tries to nil (Craig and Callum) through playing some good attacking rugby in both halves.

Next up was Strathmore and after initially falling behind to a penalty the boys came back strongly to score 3 unanswered tries (Chris, Callum, Dougie) before defeating Glenrothes by 2 tries to nil with tries from Mark and Charlie. This meant with a four from four record the boys moved into their final game in pole position to qualify if they could earn another win.

Right from the off, the boys had Hillfoots / Bannockburn under pressure and scored from quick tap penalty through Adam before turnover ball at a scrum was moved quickly to allow Callum to add a second. The boys then soaked up pressure and kept Hillfoots in their own half before Mark closed the game out with a long range penalty.

In the end five games, five wins, 10 tries scored, none conceded and another competition to look forward to in 2014. The only sour note sadly was an injury to Cal playing his first start for the team, suffering a broken collar bone in the opening minutes of the first match. Get well soon Cal and we will see you in the new year fully recovered.

Otherwise a great day for the squad; the boys have had their ups and downs in the last 18 months so today was testament to all the hard effort they have put into training and on the pitch these past few months and have finished the year playing good rugby and with a smile on their faces which makes coaches and parents very proud.

No more matches this year, but training continues this Wednesday and we will likely bring the squad together over the holidays to keep the momentum going in readiness for the start of the cup games in January.

To everyone, good luck in the raffle draw on Thursday and have a great Christmas and New Year.