Sunday 14th Jan 2018 What a winter’s day. The “fog and filthy air”, not to mention the freezing wind and drizzle, meant the coaches felt like Macbeth’s three witches as they tried to plot the right mix of players to take on the might of Dumfries. Illness, injury, exams and post Christmas lethargy all made the ‘unavailable’ list a challenge with about a third of the team playing in unaccustomed positions. Despite this, the players were pleased to be playing on the First Pitch at the Greenlaw and lined up into the biting wind for the first half.
Stewartry U16 XV (27) vs Dumfries U16 XV (12)
The challenge would be for Stewartry to control a Dumfries side while they had the elements in their favour, and while the possession was about equal in the first quarter, Dumfries were the first to score as they drove downwind into the Stewartry 22. A try in the left hand corner was just reward for their pressure that made the Stewartry miss tackles and wait passively on the gain line.
Stewartry chased the restart hard and in the best piece of rugby in the match, won the breakdown through Fraser Gibson’s turnover and went right with Peter Young pulling the strings. Coming left from the resulting ruck, Stewartry passed the ball slickly (especially considering the numb fingers) out to Archie Nicholson on the wing who stepped inside the cover to score and keep Stewartry in contention.
The sides then swapped tries with Dumfries capitalising on scrappy Stewartry defence but then succumbing to another multiphase build up by the Stewartry with Zac Hunter and Ryan Cochrane coming close to scoring only to have the ruck killed. David Martin, with typical quick thinking, took the penalty quickly and drove over beneath the posts from about 10m out.
For the last 5 minutes of the first half, Dumfries had the Blacks pinned down in their own 22 and it was only their defence and solid scrummaging, with Glen Duke taking the responsibility to tidy up at scrum time leading to a controlled exit, that kept Stewartry in the match. The only thing separating the sides at half time was a Dumfries conversion.
After a half time spent in the changing room, trying to cajole frozen fingers to defrost, the second half was, on paper, a more one sided affair with the Stewartry scoring three unanswered tries despite being down to 14 players. For much of the time however the conditions meant that there was a muddy battle slogged out in the middle of the park with good runs by Fin Telfer and Fraser Forsyth petered out because of a lack of support. The first try of the half went to Cochrane, who ran on to a quick tapped penalty and drove through a number of defenders to score under the posts. This was just reward for a huge amount of pressure which saw Dumfries pinned in the 22 for nearly 15 minutes. Credit must go to the Dumfries defence during this period which was matched by the lack of Stewartry composure as phase after phase was flung at Dumfries. These attacks were orchestrated by Patrick Quigley at scrum half, and driven on by Paddy Traynor, Glen Duke and Andrew Boden who unfortunately, unsuccessfully, tried things on their own. Young converted this try on a day when the conditions dictated that only two kicks were successful.
Hacking the ball back into the Dumfries half the Stewartry then drove again, Forsyth going close in the right hand corner. Hunter, a prop playing scrum half, popping a cute scoring pass to Nicholson who cut a dynamic and angled path to the line. The strength of the wind showed in the final try when Dumfries kicked poorly from a 22 drop out for Murray Connor and Lockie Spence to collect and run around the cover to score. Dumfries did mount a final attack, but their runners were hauled down on the Stewartry 22 by Pacey Ho who had led the line in attacking defence until he was redeployed as both winger and full back once Martin had to leave the field. It was apparent, from the speed with which Stewartry got players behind the ball and Dumfries didn’t get players up in support of the attack, that the home side had the legs and resolve to see the match out.
