Reds u16s through to East Cup semi-final
Linlithgow 38 – 15 Dunbar
Thursday 6 March 2025
Report by Nick Smith
Just a quick report for this week. Too much rugby at the weekend has little time for much else!
A game under the lights on lower mains park, in the East cup quarterfinals, taking on old rivals Dunbar was a tantalizing prospect. The sunshine during the day had dried the pitch beautifully turning it from what could have been a total mud bath into something that almost invited fast hard running rugby.
Dunbar kicked off and put us under pressure right from the start. They carried well and started to play the game well into our half. Whilst our defence was strong and did well to hold out. Eventually we turned them and cleared our lines. This was all we needed to find our rhythm.
We began to set up camp in their half. From a lineout, Rory passed to TJ who broke through the Dunbar line at pace. He quickly offloaded to Finlay Mac and he was in for our first try.
The second came soon after when Rory cross kicked with a lovely weighted ‘nudge’ (posh accent needed!). Alex E reached up above his head, grabbed the ball and scored in the corner. Rory then added the extras, landing a kick that would have made the mercurial Fin Russell proud!
It wasn’t long until we were in again. This time it was TJ himself who took the honours after a series of eight or nine phases where the boys moved the ball from left to right, making ground and patiently waiting for a gap to emerge. This was exactly what we wanted to see as coaches.
The next try went to Joe after some sustained pressure. And then it was Cammy who was first to drop on a kick through after nice breaks from Alley Mc and Finlay Mac. We finished the half 33 points to the good.
We then rang the changes. Alexander replaced Liam and hooker and kept the pressure on in the loose. Tom had an outing in the back row which he seemed to enjoy. Greig added his enforcer role to the second row, Cameron took over from Fraser as the front row hard-man and Max came in to take over from Joe as the linkman between backs and forwards.
So it was with this line up that we went again. Dunbar were now up to salvage a bit of pride after making a few changes of their own. They came at us hard but again our defence was strong as we held them up after a tap penalty and snuffed out their attacks down the right wing. Eventually the pressure told and they scored their first of three tries. A few more changes from us meant we brought on Calum into the second row and Duncan returned from injury into the centres.
The next try went to the ‘enforcer’ Greig following an offload from Calum after a quick tap penalty by Max.
So the game finished 38-15 and puts us through to the semifinals for a home game against Boroughmuir to be played on Saturday 22 March at 10am on Upper Mains Park.
There were some great performances in this game and a player of the match is a tough call. Tom put in two fine tackles to end some ominous Dunbar attacks. Ali B was very strong in defence and kept the defensive line right. Cammy was as busy as ever in the loose. Finlay Mac was a constant threat with ball in hand and strong in defence. However, the player of the match this week goes to Alex K. He was strong in the scrum, carried superbly and counterly rucked with real grit to win us good ball which we put to good effect.
Thanks again to all the parents for their support and help in the kitchen and to Greg Cann for his score updates!