Reds u18s claim conference title with statement win
St Leonards / Madras 24 – 38 Linlithgow
Saturday 29 November 2025
Report by Nick Smith
This weeks match report. Great result for the boys.
This game was proceeded by a flurry of sidesplitting curry-related puns, so at this point it’s fair to say that we made samosa of that and there’s not a great dhal of mileage in exploiting this any further!
We kicked off into a rather stiff cold breeze that blew in off the North Sea. We retained possession and started to put some pressure on Madras. But our dominance was short-lived as Madras used the wind to good effect and pinned us back into our own half with some good tactical kicking. They played a clever game using their big number 8 to thunder up the pitch and then kicking well to gain territory.
It wasn’t long before we found ourselves 14 nil down as Madras scored from close range and then from a break from their own half. This felt like it might be another tough one to watch. However, this team has been through adversity and knows it can play. There were some great individual moments in the first half such as Finlay M’s diving take from the restart and Callum‘s chip and chase after a characteristically hard run.
A yellow card for Madras for not retreating sparked us into life. We hammered at the line and then moved it wide to the right where there was enough space for Duncan to round his defender to score. Thomas added the two points with a monstrous kick.
We weren’t done and were soon on the attack again this time from a line out Kai carried strongly into their defence. We zipped the ball to the left with Thomas performing a bizarre over the head pass and Duncan was in his second. It showed real strength of character that we were able to finish the half at level pegging with Madras.
In the second half, we really took the game to them. We used the quick penalty to excellent effect, gaining territory and putting ourselves in the right place on the pitch. From a scrum we executed a set move perfectly and a loop from TJ created the space for Will to score. Thomas slotted the conversion home. The next try came from a scrum which has been a particular strength for us. Ewan picked up at eight passed onto Aiden who drew the man and found Elliot who fed the on rushing Cammy who dived in to score.
We then found ourselves down to 14 men and had to show some character in defence to keep Madras at bay. But not only could we defend with 14 men but we could also attack and it wasn’t long before we moved the ball wide to put Angus C in at the far corner. Madras came back at us after this with a try of their own from a close range. We always knew they would have the strength to score.
Our final score was a well deserved try from Aiden who spotted a gap, shot through it and was in under the posts before Madras could react.
In the final five minutes we had to defend for our lives to keep Madras out. They had beaten us last time with two late breakaway tries and we weren’t gonna let that happen again.
The boys should be very proud of a strong performance today. They showed real character to come back from 14 nil down and win the game in style in the end. There’s a fantastic team spirit and it’s clear these boys are prepared to put themselves on the line for each other. We were definitely the better team today and deserve to have won the conference.
Thanks also to family members and spectators who braved the cold easily wind. I think it’s fair to say you were well rewarded today.