S3 at Preston Lodge (Nov 22)

Young Reds S3s in Cracking Game

Preston Lodge 14 – 7 Linlithgow

Saturday 12 November 2022

Report by Phil McCavish

Summer rugby came to East Lothian on Saturday when the Young Reds took on PL for their re-arranged fixture, with the winner of the game finishing top of this year’s conference.

The Young Reds approached the game with 5 forwards missing – it’s testament to the depth in the squad that we are now able to field a team with this level of absence, let alone be competitive against a strong side PL side.

It was clear from the kick off that both teams were defensively strong and for the first 15 minutes neither side was able to gain the upper hand. PL’s game plan was based upon using their excellent fly half to gain field position and after 17 minutes they scored first try under the posts and the conversion was successful.

The Young Reds responded well to this setback, competing hard and gradually getting to grips with the aggressive PL rush defence, which in part relied upon a generous interpretation of the offside law. Neither side was able to make any further impression on the scoreboard in the remainder of the first half.

Both sides continued to cancel each other at the start of the second half until Alex, who was a constant threat to the PL defence, received the ball in the PL 22 and scored an excellent try. Jack added the extra points through the conversion to level the game with 25 minutes to go.

PL responded and were able to further capitalise on good field position through another converted try with 20 minutes to go. The Young Reds responded to the setback and created enough opportunities to level the game and perhaps sneak the win, but unfortunately they were unable to take advantage of them – the pressure of the game perhaps playing a part in this. 

The team showed great heart to overcome the shortage of forwards – to the extent that it wouldn’t have been obvious to the opposition that this was the case. Special mention must go to Angus who moved into the scrum for the game and was a constant thorn to PL, Ross who did the unseen work and held the pack together, and Ruaridh who is still new to the game but got through a great deal of defensive work. 

The extent of the PL celebrations at the final whistle showed how much of a contest the game had been and how on another day there could easily have been a different result.

Saturday was probably the Young Reds first real game of rugby – it was certainly the lowest scoring game that they have been involved in – where every point has to earned and tries aren’t scored easily through sloppy defence. This will have given them a taste of the benchmark that they need to adjust to – they have an excellent defence, they now need to adjust to scoring against other teams that have a similarly good defence.