Prep Boys round up
This week saw our under 11 and under 9 rugby teams travel to Craigclowan for fixtures on Wednesday. The under 9 A team, led by the irrepressible Tom; competed wonderfully and pushed a strong Craigclowan close, narrowly losing 12 scores to 9. In the B team game, several boys new to rugby this term took to the field for the first time and did really well, only losing by 6 tries to 10. Meanwhile the under 11 side gave their hosts a real run around, but went down by 6 tries to 3. Mr Pillinger was pleased with this performance against a strong side from a big group of boys.
Friday saw the Dandylions’ rugby trial take place at Loretto. Six boys performed strongly in a high standard of trial in wet conditions. Angus was selected at no 8, Jack in the 2nd row and Edmund on the wing, having scored no less than 6 strong, individual tries! Rory is selected as reserve, whilst Dougie and Alex gave an excellent account of themselves.
On Friday, an under 10 side travelled over to Clifton Hall and came away with a respectable draw, 4 tries each.
Finally, on Sunday, our strongest under 13 players headed for the annual Ardvreck sevens tournament. Played under clear blue skies, this event saw plenty of fine, running rugby, some of it occasionally by the Fettes team. We competed manfully with the eventual winners, Merchiston, in the first game, going down by 4 tries, but improving immeasurably during the game. We then beat Aberlour comfortably, with Dougie increasingly bossing things maturely and Owen coming on to dash down the wing to score with his first touch!
We therefore faced the host side, Ardvreck, in the quarter-finals, and put on probably our strongest performance. A try by Alex put us very much in contention and our defence was immense, but Ardvreck were not to be denied and scored three tries of their own. The boys then seemed to tire in our final match, as our lack of preparation for this event showed and we lost to Riley House.
The boys could feel proud of much impressive effort and a vast improvement over the day. We were wonderfully supported by a large group of parents and family. While Sarah kept Edmund entertained, Mrs Phillips’ sweets kept the boys’ energy levels up, so our thanks!