Cumnock Vs Lenzie & Dumfries

With the Yellow warnings holding off until the next few days we graciously extended our invitation to Lenzie RFC and also Dumfries Saints. This was due to Lenzie’s pitches being unplayable however it takes a lot more than rain to put the stop on Fortress Broomfield. With both teams being very grateful of the short notice invite we were set for some stonking matches against 2 very good opposing teams.

Blacks Vs Lenzie:

The weather did its best at the start of the morning to dampen the Cougar’s spirit with a hail storm with 2 minutes to go – but it was soon apparent it would take more than that to put this team off. After the customary split – the Blacks of Cara, Calleigh, Adam K, Danny, Ross, Neil & Kyran headed straight into first game against a super fit looking Lenzie team. The Blacks had one thing on their mind today and that was teamwork and hard work and in this game they had that in bucket loads. Tense start to this game with strong tackling on both sides, Ross side-stepping his way over to cross first for Blacks and his first of 5 in this game – strong drives from Calleigh, Cara and Kyran had Lenzie constantly on the back foot and kept our scoreboard ticking over and when Lenzie did get forward, they had Neil, Danny and Adam K to contend with who were also doing a great job of scrambling and getting the pop up passes in the contact. A true team performance all round, 110% effort and a 10-6 win to show for it, great result in a tough game.

Score: Cumnock 10 – 6 Lenzie

Blacks Vs Dumfries:

This is always a tough fixture but the Cougars had a wee score to settle after defeat in our own tournament last year so this was always going to be a belter! The Blacks were simply superb in this game, Dumfries struck first to lead but Blacks struck back straight away with strong drive from Cara and release to Kyran to crash through for his first of 5 in this game. There was a clear pattern emerging of Cumnock’s driving players Kyran, Cara and Calleigh proving too strong, sucking the Dumfries tacklers in leaving space for Blacks to cross, Adam K doing so superbly after a great run, Danny again proving super tough to bring down as he crossed, with Neil proving he’s just as good at either end with some superb tackling and some waving runs to cross 4 times in this game – including a great offload to Ross who was making space for fun with another 5 in this game as Dumfries tried to cope with our blistering attack speed. This was definitely one of the hardest working team performances this season with Blacks really making the second half theirs and winning 16-11 in the end.

Score: Cumnock 16 – 11 Dumfries

Reds v Dumfries

As the Reds won the obligatory Rock, Paper, Scissors to start the match we set off quite reluctantly however within a few minutes it was clear that neither team would be letting the match go without giving the fans a treat to watch. Rudi was first on the scorecard for the Reds today and really did show what an addition he has been since he as come back from injury with amazing tackles and 5 tries in this match alone. Alfie was spinning and twisting all around the pitch and showed us all how to run around an entire defence time and again. Each time the Dumfries challengers brought their game to us it would take 4 or 5 phases to allow anything to happen. This was thanks to the tackling ablity of Jack, Euan & Harvey. All 3 were able to pounce on the attackers and each play from them showed off their fancy footwork and offloading ability being able to smash into the oncoming tackles and still keep the momentum going and hand over to their team mates. Stuart was next up to get himself on the scoreboard powering the leg drives hrough to find some space and capitalise on it and for his 2nd he again took a great pass from Harvey and stretched his legs to the opposite corner from whence he came to get over the line. Next we showed another fantastic try this time from Daniel who powered forward after some tough phases to attack time and again to get his try of the match.

Score: Cumnock 14 – 13 Dumfries

Reds v Lenzie

The Reds marched over onto the 2nd pitch full of enthusiasm and waited for the challenge to come from Lenzie. And challenge they most certainly did. This was definitely a game of 2 half’s as the first was quite scrappy with some dubious referee decisions making it very stop start however in the 2nd the match really opened up. Daniel was awesome in his tackling prowess with very little getting past him if anything at all. Harvey was able to shimmy through the defenders at ease and the fans were left in awe as he popped the ball up very quickly before the defenders were able to set up for the next move. Jack brought himself through and showed his speed was just another part of his game that was too much to handle. As has become the norm for him nowadays Alfie bagged another 5 but his space finding ability was what set him apart from the rest. Euan regained his power in this match also and the attackers really did struggle with trying to get through him. Stuart had the try of this match though and as he powered through and over 4 separate defenders again showing off where he has been working on his leg drives he blasted to the line to score. However the 1st half confusion with the referee had undone the scoreline a little too much and it was just beyond our reach in this match.

Score: Cumnock 7 – 9 Lenzie

Overall Score: Cumnock 47 - 39 Opponents

Dream Team – Stuart, Euan, Jack, Rudi, Alfie, Harvey, Daniel, Ross, Calleigh, Cara, Neil, Dani, Kyran, Adam K.