U16s revel in the Penicuik sun!

Penicuik  0 – 76  Linlithgow

Saturday 18 January 2025

Report by Nick Smith

For any of us who know people from Penicuik, we will have heard them talk about its incredible microclimate.  Most of us then wait until they turn away and raise our eyebrows in disbelief!  However as we reached the outskirts (and road works) of Penicuik we took it all back as we were met with beautiful blue skies and sunshine while the rest of Scotland was cloaked in a thick blanket of cloud.

The sun followed us to the pitch and then sat low in the sky.

We kicked off and immediately put the pressure on Penicuik. We turned them over and Micah out in a trademark rumble up the pitch gaining good ground. We then moved the ball to the right and back to the left. We had talked about the need to find the space out wide and the boys’ intent to do this was clear. However this was our first game in at least a month and if we are honest with ourselves our rustiness showed and we couldn’t quite get ourselves over the line.

However it was only a matter of time before we did score and, from a scrum, Finlay Mac picked up, dummied and dived over for try number 1.

We continued with a game plan with some strong carries from our forwards and then an attempted to move it wide as the space opened up. We also attacked from broken play and try number 2 came from one of these moments, Finlay Mac took the ball down the left wing making good ground, then offloaded to Angus C and with a few swerves of his own he avoided the defence and was in to score.

It was also great to see Angus T on the other wing also get his hands on the ball as he broke through the defence and made nice offloads to supporting forwards who were eager to get themselves involved. Hugh also offered us much at scrum half as well as making a nice break after fielding a rather long kick off.

The final try of the third went to Finlay M. From the breakdown we shifted the ball right, with Finlay breaking into the line at pace, his strong running took him through the defence and over the line.

The next third saw us ring a few changes. Ali B came on to the wing, Ewan slotted into the back row, alongside Aiden and Calum, and Alexander and Liam bolstered the front row.

The first 10 minutes or so belonged to the two Ali’s. Firstly Ali B received the ball on the right wing and with an electric turn of pace he found himself over the try line. Ali Mac was next and it was great to see him back after a long layoff.  He lost none of his pace in that time and with his high knees pumping he broke down the centre of the pitch to score. I won’t describe Ali B’s next two tries or his final two of the third as they looked like an exact replay of his first.

Calum wasn’t to be left out and scored two of his own. His second followed a nice break from Greig from a tap penalty. This took us up in their half and close to their line, unfortunately we were turned over but Calum was competitive as ever and stole in back and hared over the line to touch it down.

The final third was more an exhibition and we thank Ewan, Ali B, Hugh and Micah for switching shirts and playing for Penicuik, with particular thanks to Micah who bravely put on a rather sweaty and muddy shirt which had already been worn by Calum and then Alex in their previous stints for Penicuik!

Main events of this third was a nicely taken try by Angus T as we shipped the ball out to the right wing and a further try from Alex K who charged over the line when no one was going to stop him.

It was great to see the boys back playing – even through the game was a little one sided.  It is important to recognise that Penicuik have only been together as a club since the beginning of the season. They showed real promise and they put in some hefty tackles which knocked back some of our strongest carriers. It will great to play them again next season when we will need to be at the top of our game to compete.

The boys should be really pleased with their performance but there is plenty to work on.  Particularly in the scrum and the rucks, and if we put in the work in training we shouldn’t be worried about this, a bit of rustiness is to be expected.

As for player of the match there were a few candidates. Duncan and Alfie both had solid games in the centres and moved the ball well. The try machine that is Ali B was still hungry but this week it was the player at full back that had the best game. Finlay M tackled hard (a particularly strong one on Ali B sticks in the mind), was reliable under the high ball, his hard running also took it right to Penicuik defence, either finding space or taking it into the Penicuik defence where he knew his forwards were on hand to secure the ball and retain possession.  This was topped with a well-earned try.

We look forward to a cup game next weekend.