After all the waiting, the new team Stewartry RFC Under 16’s personnel, the pre-season training and the anticipation, the new season kicked off at the Greenlaw with the first match in the Mitsubishi Motors U16 west conference league. Just to make sure you knew that it was autumn, the weather did not play ball and the players had to cope with a very blustery and wet afternoon.
Stewartry U16XV (54) vs Newton Stewart (5)
Having practiced hard in the off season trying to develop more structure in their game from the U15 matches last season, the Stewartry could hardly have imagined how well the first quarter of the match would go. Receiving the ball from the kickoff they went 7 phases of controlled rugby with the forwards sweeping up the field just like in practice. Newton Stewart repelled the first attack and pushed the Stewartry back to the halfway line. From there Fraser Gibson made his first of many breaks in the game and set up a series of rucks from which Ryan Cochrane powered over to score the first try on a lovely, out to in, line that fooled the defence.
The rest of the first half was more of the same. Stewartry collecting the ball from a kick-off and driving back up the pitch. The fact that four out of the six tries scored by the Stewartry in first half came from forwards (Cochrane, Gibson and Telfer) showed how much control their pack had on the game.The set piece was working well with Andrew Bowden and Connor Clanachan anchoring the scrum as props and allowing Paddy Traynor an easy ride at hooker. The loose play however was sensational, driving runs from Gibson, Telfer, Duke and Clanachan always broke tackles and the speed of the recycle was such that Archie Nicholson had fun at scrum half, distributing and making breaks at will. The backs chipped in with two tries from Fraser Forsyth and Pacey Ho. Ho’s try was probably the pick of the first half because of its simplicity. After a series of forward drives the ball was shifted left with good quick hands. Ho still had work to do and stepped inside a covering defence to score – it looked simple, but it was actually one of the better executed backs attacks.
It was not all one way traffic and Newton Stewart had a sustained period of pressure on the half hour mark. This culminated with Stewartry giving two red zone penalties away, but smashing tackling forced a knock on and from the resulting scrum, captain Lochlann Spence made a great clearance kick.
The first half ended with a comfortable lead for the Stewartry and had Peter Young had easier kicking conditions the score may well have been even more one sided.
In the second half the Newton Stewart coach had earned his keep and whatever he said had a noticeable effect on their team effort. For the first scoreless twenty minutes of the second half they stemmed the Stewartry charge and even pulled themselves back into the game. This was helped to a certain extent by the Stewartry emptying their bench to make sure all players had a run out and some were moved to unfamiliar positions. All the subs added something to the game and showed that they were not out of their depth at this standard, but inevitably the changes disrupted the Stewartry flow. During this period of committed Stewartry defence David Martin was right in the thick of the effort, tackling, jackling, clearance kicking – he was a man possessed.
As the Stewartry got accustomed to their new set up they started to click and scored three quick tries. Unlike the first half these came from rather broken play and needed the pace of the backs to break away. Young scored two showing his pace out wide, one a cheeky nutmeg and chase and Forsyth got his second with another typical forceful break.
Playing into the strengthening wind, in the last few minutes, Newton Stewart forced their way over the try line with a concerted, forward dominated effort. Their dogged perseverance must be congratulated, but at the final whistle it was the Stewartry side who deservedly came away with the honours.
