For once the weather gods were smiling at the Greenlaw as the West Reginal Cup finally got underway after several postponements due to inclemency. The Stewartry were fielding a new side with several senior players having made the move up an age group and injuries keeping others away. As such, the comfortable win from the league was no guarantee of success this time round.
Stewartry U16 XV (67) vs Strathaven U16 XV (0)
The match started quite well for the Stewartry who followed up their kick off by pressing Strathaven back into their half. Unfortunately, they made hard going of using their possession with several players ignoring simple overlaps and playing into the hands of solid Strathaven defenders. Eventually Fin Baillie barreled over for the Stewartry ignoring players outside him, but showing determination and power to brush aside the tacklers.
A much better passage of play came from the Strathaven kick off, where Zak Hunter caught the kick and, brushing off the kick chasers, made 20m up the right touch line. From the ruck the ball went left to new recruit Oskar Kapron who made good ground and set up another quick ruck. Going right this time, Fraser Forsyth passed to Murray Connor who got close to the line and presented the ball in the tackle for Forsyth to collect and score in the right hand corner.
After these two scores, Strathaven began to assert themselves and pressed hard into the Stewartry half. The Stewartry tacklers were holding their ground but Strathaven were playing multiphase rugby and keeping possession well. This was until a cracking tackle by Fin Telfer dislodged the ball and gave the Stewartry the feed at a scrum. It looked as if this effort might come to naught as Stewartry knocked on 5 meters from their line giving Strathaven an attacking scrum. The following effort from the Black’s front five secured the ball against the head and set the tone for scrum dominance in the rest of the match. The power from Rory Sinclair and Telfer behind the stability of Hunter and Andrew Bowden at prop allowed Paddy Traynor to hook the ball easily. This possession was shifted left with Kapron making ground before passing to Peter Young who sprinted 70m , outpacing several covering defenders, to score. Young easily converted his own try.
Once again Strathaven came back into the match and there was a period of stalemate in the middle of the pitch with both teams trying to be expansive but making mistakes and turnovers. This period was ended with a rather speculative hack upfield by the Stewartry, but the kick chase was of such high quality, initially by Fraser Gibson, that Strathaven were pinned back in their 22. Eventually Luke Thompson made good ground for Stewartry before popping the ball to Kapron who ran the ball back, in almost unopposed. His inexperience meant he did not take the ball under the posts making it difficult for Young to add to his kicking tally.
The whistle went for half time with the Stewartry 22-0 in front and looking forward to exploiting the slope and the sun in the second half.
To confound this expectation, Strathaven started the second half with more concerted pressure in the Stewartry half. They kept the ball well and sent their big runners up on one-out passes. The Stewartry defense held fast with Hunter and Connor Clanachan making telling tackles on the gain line. The reward for this resolution was a turnover which was then moved left to Forsyth who timed a sweet pass to Young. With the cover still to beat, Young pinned his ears back and demonstrated his pace, scoring under the posts to make his own conversion easier.
At this point in the match, Strathaven now started to tire and found it difficult to get out of their half. Kickoff returns by the Stewartry were dynamic and efficient with Bowden, Aaron Murray and Alex McCormick (both coming off the bench to make several good runs) all carrying hard. Gibson was rewarded for his dynamism by getting the pop from the tackled Clanachan and running on to score, while surviving a tap tackle on the way. Forsyth also profited, being on the end of a turnover and some good passing, putting him into the space needed to score another.
The most speculative try in this half came from a lineout taken cleanly by Telfer, a cross kick/pass from Forsyth (rather sliced if truth be told)was caught and flipped on by Young to Pacey Ho who arced around the defense to score with his first touch of the ball after coming off the bench. Other speculative skills were demonstrated by Aaron Murray who controlled a poor pass to him by chipping it up to himself before making some hard yards, setting up a ruck and initiating the next attack.
Other good signs for the Stewartry came with their first successful catch and drive of the season, and increased scrum dominance leading to a blind side try for Young and a solo try for Patrick Quigley which was a fitting reward for his unremitting effort to be first to every breakdown.
The final try was again a demonstration of what was by now Stewartry dominance. From an efficient ‘exit’ after the kickoff, Forsyth drilled a penalty into the Strathaven half. The crispest lineout take followed, Traynor and Telfer in perfect synchronicity, allowing the ball to be moved from Quigley to Connor Murray who made good ground to the left, Traynor carried on the move and Ho finished it off with support available outside him.
The final score laid to rest the Stewartry worries about the squad changes. New players slotted in smoothly and established players showed how their skills have improved from the first meeting in the League last September.
