Dumfries Mini Rugby Tournament (Sunday 15th March)
Dumfries Saints P4’s fielded 2 teams in our home fixture. Saints Black & Whites and Saints Blues.
B&W’s had their 1st match v Ayr and were sound winners 6-1, with Alec Bryden and the ever improving Riley Black on the scoreboard. Next up was Dalziel (from Motherwell) and another super result for the boys and mention to Joe Graham (everyone knows that yellow scrum cap!) and Fergus Hannah’s involvement, with a 4-1 win. Last match in the pool was Stewartry and B&W’s also ran in winners at 3-1. Oliver Clanachan, Callum McLaughlan and Innes Magee, in the action as always. These level headed youngsters were well up for the final with Moffat who also played straight through to final. What a final it was…..as the tackles, ball handling and general control from The P4’s was superb to watch, with scores from George Willis-Fleming, Callum Howat and Ethan Anderson, securing a home result (3-1) and the trophy returning back to Park Farm. Also, a superb day for Callum Hinton, who was The much deserved P4 player of the Tournament, as his work rate was fantastic and his tackling secure. The Blues, also had a great day playing on pitch 2, against Stewartry, Moffat, Ayr and Dalziel. This team is making huge progress and congratulations must go to all these young players, P4 Saints have 27 players registered and normally field 2 teams, so competition is healthy and numbers good for the future of this squad. Thank you to Dave Bell for running the Blues and our 2 refs – Mike Halliday and Bast Willis-Fleming.
Dumfries Saints P5 had 8 teams in two leagues of 4 at the tournament on Sunday . Dumfries had Dalziel from Motherwell , Langholm/Annan combined and Newton Stewart . The other league consisted of Ayr , Stewartry , Carrick and Moffat .
First up for Dumfries were Dalziel the young saints team started with great determination with Fergus Clanachan and Stewart Robert’s both scoring great tries . Super tackling by Mark and Scott kept Dalziel at bay . Further tries by Rory and Fergus Cubbon and another 2 from Fergus Clanachan gave Dumfries a 6-1 win .
Next up were a strong Newton Stewart team but the Dumfries defence held firm with Callum and Craig starting to tackle well . Logan made some good hard yards and offloaded to Fergus Clanachan to score one of his 2 tries . Further tries from Kier and Stewart after an amazing side step and dummy gave Dumfries a 4 nil win . The pressure was on ,Dumfries had to win against langholm to guarantee themselves a place in the final . After a nervous start the saints team started to build some phases of play together with Caleb holding ball up well and looking for options . Both Fergus Cubbon and Fergus Clanachan latched on to nice off loads to score . Rory had a great bullocking run and burst through to score . Mark and Stewart added a try a piece with some fine work peeling round from the rucks . Langholm scored a consolation try near the end but 5-1 scoreline meant saints were in the final .
The other league was tied on points between Stewartry and Ayr but it was the all blacks from Castle Douglas that went through on the number of tries scored in other games .
The stage was set for a fabulous final and it did not disappoint . End to end rugby with these young boys all tackling their hearts out . Finally Fergus Clanachan broke through the Stewartry line to score a superb try . Top tackling from Callum kept the Stewartry team on the back foot . Final whistle blew and it was a well earned 1 nil win in favour of Dumfries . For the record Callum Trotter (Dumfries) won p5 player of the tournament .
