Loch Lomond U14s 22 -v- 21 Kilmarnock U14s

Following on from a fine display against East Kilbride, Kilmarnock travelled through to Loch Lomond on Sunday, full of confidence and optimism, to play a team they had beaten comfortably the season before in two out of their three games.

Loch Lomond were only able to field 13 players from the start due to a couple of last minute call offs, so the team sheet was re-shuffled, and we matched them in numbers to kick off our 3x 20 minute games.

The first 20 minutes of rugby, Kilmarnock were looking strong and dangerous. Direct running, good support play and some ferocious tackling frustrated Loch Lomond. The defensive play was actually outstanding at times, with Loch Lomond knocking on the door on our own 5 metres line, only to be held up and knocked back each time, with Daniel Christie showing some good positional play and strength no not only hold up the opposition player, but knock him back and win the put in at the scrum! Kilmarnock played well though and finished the first 20 minutes well on top.

With 18 players to select from and only 13 on the pitch, changes were made for the start of the next 20 minute period. Loch Lomond all of a sudden looked lively, and pounced on a couple of Kilmarnock mistakes and hesitancy in a defence, that had looked strong and assured in the first period. Three quick tries changed the tone of the game, Kilmarnock heads dropped and all of a sudden found themselves under a lot of pressure. This was further added to by the losing the first of our players, Daniel Christie to a head knock, with Cameron Barbour being asked to fill in as scrum half, having just played a full 20 minutes on the wing.

The third period resulted in another shuffle of players, and Kilmarnock started to find a bit of grit and determination, that had been missing, and pulled the game back to within 1 point, however with only a few minutes of the game to go, Matthew Penrose, and Jamie Struthers had an accidental clash, which left one requiring hospital treatment for a nasty gash to his head and the other dazed…with 2 minutes left…the game was stopped…safety first and foremost is paramount.

Thankfully all three players are fine, though Jamie is now out of action for 3 weeks.

Looking back on the match, there are lots to work on. Our rucking did not function anywhere as near as it should, which is disappointing, as we have spent a lot of time on this at training. We lacked support players that resulted in a lot of turn over ball. We missed, or didn’t make tackles, and more importantly, we forgot to play as team…

On a positive note, there was a desire to put thing things right in the final 20 minutes, and there was genuine disappointment at losing the match…this is a game the boys will definitely remember and learn from. We also had a number of boys playing out of position, and a galloping Jackson Cuthbert out on the wing is a sight to behold!

I need to give mention to Robert ‘Bob’ Nolan, who played his first proper 20 minutes of rugby, and showed a quick pair of heels rampaging forward with ball in hands.

The final score was 22-21, with Matthew Penrose (x2), Laughlan Whitelaw (x2) Sami Duran and Andrew Bruce scoring 6 tries between them, and Thomas Dunlop slotting 3 conversions.

Man of the Match is joint a one this week between Matthew Penrose and Laughlan Whitelaw.