Wins for U16s and U18s against Stewarts Melville in Conference
InspireSport East Schools Leagues
Two good wins on Saturday keeps both the Reds U16s and the Reds U18s top of their respective leagues.
Comfortable win for U16s
Three late scores flatter visitors
Linlithgow 43 – 24 Stewarts Melville
Saturday 16 November 2024
Report by Nick Smith
This week we welcomed back Stewart Melville to Lower Mains Park. It was their B team but it still felt like there was a bit of payback needed for their A team’s handsome victory of 10 days previous.
They kicked off and we made our intent clear from the start. Max took the kick and offloaded to Angus C who made good ground before finding Ewan, who charged into their defensive line. For the first 5 minutes it was all us. From a ruck we moved the ball wide and Alex E kicked long and we camped in their 22. After a series of assaults on their line, we moved the back left and Ali B was in for his and our first score.
Despite SM coming back at us we always looked in control in these early stages. At times our offloading game looked really good. The boys seemed much smarter about when to give the pass and when to just hold on and take the tackle. The next try went to Ali B on a crash ball after a lovely break from Dunan and some heavy carries from Ektor and Ewan.
Try number three was Ektor’s. His was a very busy game, ever willing to get his hands on the ball and take on the SM defence. His try was typical of this as he crashed over from relatively short range.
The next try belonged to Angus C. Given that he spent most of the game trying to cover every blade of grass on the pitch it was no surprise to see him on the end of a lovely set of offloads.
We played some nice rugby in this half and it was good to see our newer players getting their hands on the ball. Kieren in particular showed his pace on a nice couple of breaks down the wing. On one occasion it looked like the SM defence wasn’t going to stop him, but unfortunately the referee’s whistle did.
SM then registered themselves on the score board after a meandering run from their rangy full back – possible aided by some suspect tackling.
Our final try of the half came from Liam. This was a sight to see he seemed to borrow down deep into the ruck like a mole. He them came up with the ball and shot through the SM defence to score. No one knew quite what to make it of it but the score stood.
At the half time break we made a few changes. Daniel, Callum and Tom came into the front row and Finlay and Elliot came into the back row. Aiden continued in the second row from where he made himself ever available to carry into the heart of the SM defence.
Elliot brought some extra aggression in the tackle and Finlay greater carrying power. While Daniel’s new found height made playing in the front row more challenging, it aided his play in the loose where he was a constant threat in defence and attack.
The first try of the half saw Ali B claim his hat-trick. But as you can imagine that wasn’t enough for him. His fourth came soon after and was a real joy to watch. He took the ball in his own half and ran into the crowded defence. Like a greased ferret he danced through two or three defenders, his feet moving at a blur, before opening up and racing in to score.
SM came back at after this and put three tries on us.This flattered them in the scoreline, but was a real lesson to us in terms of taking our foot off the accelerator and eye off the ball in the second half. This is turning into a bit of a habit which we will need to watch when we play better teams.
Overall through this was a good performance. We did mix things up and it was good to see Jayden showing his pace on the wing and Thomas M getting on for his debut after a spell away from the game. Angus T had a new experience playing at outside centre and he proved himself equal to the task with some particularly strong tackling. Alex K and Connor were strong in the front row and we missed their technique in the second half when our scrum became a bit unbalanced. Tom was as strong as ever in the loose and put in more than a couple of big hits.
Player of the match this week is tough. Alfie had a good game, defending with real strength and moving the ball nicely to our new found speedsters on the wings. Ektor put in a great performance and with his non stop carrying, crashing time and time again into the SM defence. However with his four tries and electric pace, this week’s player of the match is Ali B. He should be right proud!
U18s finish on top in hard-fought game
Linlithgow 43 – 35 Stewarts Melville
Saturday 16 November 2024
Report by Graeme Miller
Whilst the home side had the lead for most of the game, bar a few minutes, the score remained close right up till late in the second half when the Reds U18s finally got two scores ahead.
Here’s how the scoring panned out:
First Half
5-0 Linlithgow try Alex after 2 mins
5-5 StewMel try after 5 mins
10-5 Linlithgow try Finn after 12 mins
12-5 conversion by Alfie
17-5 Linlithgow try Calum after 18 mins
19-5 conversion Alfie
19-10 StewMel try after 21 mins
19-15 StewMel try after 24 mins
19-17 conversion
19-20 StewMel penalty
Second Half
24-20 Linlithgow try Alfie after 7 mins
26-20 conversion Alfie
31-20 Linlithgow try Calum after 13 mins
31-25 StewMel try after 18 mins
31-27 conversion
31-30 StewMel penalty
36-30 Linlithgow try Finlay after 27 mins
38-30 conversion Alfie
43-30 Linlithgow try Calum after 30 mins
43-35 StewMel try after 35 mins
Full time