2s blow away young Accies side

Linlithgow 2s  61 – 5  Edinburgh Accies 3s

Saturday 09 November 2024

Report by Des Martin

Linlithgow had a very large squad for this game versus Edinburgh Academicals as home games seem to have a positive effect on player availability. The Manager had been checking cautiously all week as Accies had struggled to fulfil some of their fixtures through lack of player numbers, but was pleased when they appeared at Mains Park with 15 players. Game on at least!

The Reds 2s started briskly and the ball went from the forwards through Euan McCartney at scrum half, was carried by Gregor McLean and passed by Aiden Wan to Callum Lindsay who sliced through the opposition to score a great try. (5-0)

The Supporters thought more tries would come easily but the Reds, although playing good rugby with Alex McHardy, Jonny Pegg and James Galbraith carrying strongly, failed to add any more scores in the next 20 minutes. Eventually, after a good run of play, up popped Callum Lindsay to score his second. 10-0 to the Reds.

This Reds team play good rugby utilising all the players with good handling between forwards and backs. Patrick Bennie, Ross Findlater and Matty Somerville all took turns in carrying strongly and, from one such piece of play, Alex McHardy who had been unlucky a couple of times scored a good try.  (15-0 to the Reds). Uggs McCartney, playing well at scrum half, then nipped in for a score before half time after another strong piece of forward play. 

Half time brought lots of changes, to give everyone a fair crack:

In the forwards, Adam Scott came on for Colin Devlin, Neil Lockhart for Patrick Bennie and Gabe Wylie for James Galbraith.  In the backs James Roulston came on for Uggs McCartney, Ali Walker for Aiden Wan and Jeff Martin for David Goudie in the centre.  Callum Miller swapped for his brother Fraser on one wing and Struan McLean came on for Logan Rusack on the other wing.  Wholesale changes!

It was not long before some good interlinking back play allowed Gregor to give a good ball to his brother Struan who scored a nice try.  A strong run by debutant Gabe Wlyie down the wing after catching the ball at the KO, resulted in the ball coming across the backs with Struan McLean making a nice cut inside to score his second try which he himself converted  (32-0).

Accies then scored a brilliant solitary try from the wing but it was not converted. 

Callum Miller then scored, Callum Lindsay scored another and the score was 44-5 to the Reds. The forwards then scored after good work by Findlater and Galbraith all carrying well with tries from Jonny Pegg and Ross Findlater to make the score 56-5.  Callum Miller then added his second just before the final whistle to leave it 61-5 to Linlithgow.  

Looking back at the game, there were some great pieces of play across the board.  A couple to note were an audacious cross-kick pass from Gregor McLean to Ross Findlater and Gabe Wylie’s catch at a KO followed by sprint of 40 metres up the line. Not bad for his first senior game!

A good win and bonus points but a harder game in two weeks’ time versus Heriots at the top of the table.  Hope as many quality players are available!