Sunday 29th October 2017 – Finally the weather gods allowed this postponed match to go ahead and, with some disrupted practices over school holidays, it was difficult to know how the teams would perform.
Annan U16 (0) vs Stewartry U16 (55).
As it turned out the weather was perfect for running rugby and the Stewartry were more adept at exploiting these conditions than Annan.
Right from the kick-off, Stewartry were able to make ground with their possession and in one case it only took Zak Hunter to collect a ‘not 10’ kick, bump two defenders and offload to Fin Telfer who then ran the rest of the way to score under the posts. At other time Hunter and Baillie just ran hard and straight making heavy inroads into the Annan half before presenting ball well and setting up attacking rucks.
When Stewartry had possession Peter Young was able to marshall his backs with little pressure, taking them blind from a scrum to score himself, after some inter passing with Lochlann Spence. and then following up his own grabber kick to score his second.Young also showed his mastery of the cross kick when putting a diagonal one on the spot for Pacey Ho to score.
When Annan did get possession, they were under pressure, particularly from Archie Nicholson and tended to kick ball away. Murray Ross at fullback for the Stewartry relished this possession and ran the ball back with interest scoring one from chasing his own grubber kick and setting Fraser Gibson up for a try after some slick inter passing with Telfer and Forsyth.
In the second half Annan kicked off and once again Hunter caught and set off. Rather comically he was looking for a pass or a tackle and with neither transpiring ran on until eventually hauled down near the 22. Several phases later, some of Stewartry’s best continuity resulted in the ball being shifted left and any one of five players could have scored. Andrew Bowden being the one to cross the white wash.
As Stewartry made sure their bench had plenty of game time Annan continued to make a huge effort to stay in the game despite the scoreboard disparity. Stewartry pressure continued however and ferocious tackling, again by Nicholson, dislodged possession and then it was a scramble for the touchdown between Forsyth and Nicholson, won by Nicholson. At this point the relentless pressure at the breakdowns, particularly by Luke Thompson, Ryan Cochrane and Paddy Traynor ensured that the Stewartry continued to have plenty of ball to use. For the purist, the last Stewartry try, by David Martin, was perhaps the best in it’s simplicity. After another series of controlled ‘pick and goes’ set up by some straight running from Alex Mc Cormick three simple passes saw Martin in on the right with not a finger laid upon him.
Throughout all of this Young slotted 5 conversions, often from the harder angles, with Forsyth also being successful with a few when Young was off the field.
As the scoring got to the point that it was too one sided, the teams mixed a little and, with this strengthening, although further tries were scored Annan were able to show that they did have players capable of causing the opposition trouble .All in all good work out for boys but must aim to improve with each game individually but more importantly as a team.
The Stewartry travel to play Oban next week and will have welcomed the rust being knocked off the performance after the school holidays.
