Stewartry U15 XV (36) vs Dalziel U15 XV (35)
The Spectators at Sunday’s match at Greenlaw were treated to a nail biting match when two evenly matched teams with very different strengths went toe to toe. Stewartry’s strength lay in their collective speed and determination while Dalziel depended upon a small number of very big and aggressive players.
Dalziel opened the scoring with a tapped penalty carried up through a scattered Stewartry defence to score a try. The try was converted to open the scoring.
The Stewartry kick off was long to the left and chased, as always, by David Martin. A good defensive press by Connor Murray led to a ruck from which Fraser Gibson picked up and made a break close to the breakdown to run through to score. Peter Young converted.
Dalziel sent their kick-off straight to Fraser Gibson who made a safe catch, sidestepped the first defender and ran 60m to score again.
From the next Dalziel kick-off Stewartry did not ‘exit’ efficiently and got stuck in their own half. Dalziel turned up the pressure to win a series of rucks and forced the ball over the line for a score. Stewartry were defending tenaciously but run out of tacklers.
After a period of inconclusive play in the middle of the pitch, Peter Young pounced on a loose ball and hacked ahead. After a couple of more hacks there was a scramble for the ball over the Dalziel try line and Peter Young narrowly missed a score. From the resulting 22 drop out the ball was collected by Connor Clanachan and passed between Murray Mc Kenzie and Kerr Dalrymple. The ball finally got to David Martin who set off on a long arcing run to the left. Running out of space he stepped inside the cover and off loaded to Peter Young who crossed to finish off the try.
Once again the Stewartry benefitted from good organisation at the restart , not giving Dalziel any easy places to kick. This time Jack Gordon caught the kick-off and carried the ball back into the Dalziel half, breaking several tackles. From the ensuing ruck, Fraser Gibson, again, had the presence of mind to pick up at the base and carry the move on to score his hat-trick try.
The game had settled in to a pattern of Dalziel dominating the scrums and close exchanges and Stewartry dominating the line-out. Paddy Traynor was finding Fraser Gibson easily as he was supported by Thomas Unthank and Jack Gordon. Dalziel used their big runners to set up a series of rucks deep in the Stewartry 22 and eventually create a mismatch in which one of their large runners overpowered the defence. The conversion sneaked in off the post.
Once again Stewartry hit back immediately from the restart as Peter Young’s kick again cleared the Dalziel catchers and was chased by the Stewartry support. Dalziel infringed to kill the ruck and the penalty was taken quickly and popped to Fraser Gibson who score his fourth try.
At half time the Stewartry led 31-21 and felt reasonably comfortable, but in the second half Dalziel began to up their game and the Stewartry begin to flag in their defence. The result was two Dalziel tries from close drives, with good offloading between their big players. Both tries were converted. This put Dalziel back into the lead.
Stewartry were finding the constant defence tiring and had only temporary relief as Connor Clanachan, Andrew Bodden and Murray Mc Kenzie used all their energy to carry the ball up. At the scrum, Dalziel continued to be stronger but Fraser Gibson and Paddy Traynor, as flankers, and Corrie Mc Clure, making his debut at scrum half, harried Dalziel into many mistakes.
With time running out, and chasing the game, Stewartry forced a scrum in the Dalziel 22 and though the scrum is lost, the pressure at scrum half and more ferocious tackling by David Martin in the centre, forced a mistake and a turnover. Jack Gordon picked up from the base of the ruck and ran 20m to score. For several weeks, the focus at the Stewartry practices has been to organise width in defence and to ‘press’ the opposition into mistakes. The team will be pleased to see that it works in reality and will result in tries like this.
Dalziel knew there was not much time to get back their lead and threw everything down the hill at the Stewartry. The Stewartry defence was stretched to near breaking point but determined scrambling by Kieran Brand on the wing and support from Euan Reeves once again forced a Dalziel mistake. Peter Young took no chances with the resulting penalty, dispatching it into touch to end the game. Well done all
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