Cumnock / Kilmarnock Under 15 62 - Stewartry 12

After three straight defeats the team bounced back and played with style and a growing confidence that was a joy to behold. They deserve their moment of glory but the coaches will need to bring them back to earth before next weekends away trip to Ayr.

The Cougars started the game at a furious pace, which is in itself an improvement as they normally take time to settle into a match. From the off they moved the ball through hands and went forward at every opportunity, not giving their opponents time to settle. In fact it was basic handling errors that kept the home team at bay for the first five minutes or so but even by this time you knew that it was only a matter of time before they would get over the whitewash.

First up was Robbie McLaren, pouncng on a loose ball and scampering over from ten metres out. Gregor Paxton added three further tries before winger Murray Macleod got in on the act. Paxton added another before the interval, and with David Smith converting five of his six conversion attempts the Cougars went in at the break 40-0 ahead.

To their credit Stewartry didn't give up and scored a try early in the second half which was converted. If the home team looked like relaxing a bit this score stung them back into life. Some good interplay with the forwards saw Allisdair McLaren power his way over for a try, then Macleod broke down the wing, after some good interplay between the centres, to score under the posts.

Stewartry struck back after some indecision in the Cougars defence but this turned out to be a momentary blip. Again the forwards drove up field, with vastly improved rucking compared to previous weeks and again it was 'Big' Al that touched down. Not to be outdone the backs again showed what they could do with some slick passing along the line creating space for pacy winger Gavin Wight to stretch his legs down the wing for a magnificent score. Again David Smith added the extras and the score line reached 62-12 in favour of the home team.

League rules stipulate that the match finishes when one team reaches over 60 points so the Cougars had finally broken their league duck. However both teams played on to the final whistle, with Paxton playing for Stewartry. In this bounce game Stewartry scored two tries to the Cougars one but it had no influence on the outcome.

There is work still to be done before next weeks visit to Ayr. However the players have shown what they are capable of and they need to build on this result.

Team: McEwan (c), R McLaren, Harkiss, N Kerr, A McLaren, Phillips, Gordon, Reilly, A Kerr, Smith, Wight, Aitken, Paxton, Howie, Bowditch. Subs: Faulds, McLeod and McCulloch