Ardrossan Accies Vs Cumnock Cougars

Cougar Pack Show Great Team Spirit In The Sunday Sun

This week we had a warm welcome from our colleagues at Ardrossan Academicals RFC. The sun came out and showed how as battle commenced the heat was turned up on the pitch. We had 2 matches against a very well drilled and excellent opposition and lots of fun was to be had. A special thank you has to go to Conrad who switched teams to join the Cumnock squad for the 2 games to allow us to field a 7-man team as the Cumnock P4s were unusually 4 players down to a 6-player squad.
Match 1:
Game 1 was against the most experienced of the 2 Ardrossan teams. This game initially left Cumnock on the back foot as the Cougar Cubs took a few minutes to get into their own style of play. Ardrossan capitalised on this and scored 3 very quick and very well worked tries to leave Cumnock shuddering at the thought of their first defeat of the season coming at the site of their first piece of 2018/19 season silverware. This though seemed to spur the team on and through Rudi and Euan’s phenomenal tackling the Accies onslaught was fought back. We then flicked the switch and showed that we will never be beaten back into submission and quickly through Aaron, Stuart and Kyran the boys started to have a bit more fun and show our fellow Ayrshire battlers how we open up defensive lines and are able to run not only around but through tacklers. The first half therefore ended 3 apiece. Again, Ardrossan set the pace very quickly in the 2nd half scoring another 2 from the off. However, Cumnock were able to battle hard with Aaron starting to open the taps and show his tremendous speed running from deep in his own territory to bring it back level again by scoring a double. Euan battled hard to provide his teammates with ball after ball to run at the Ardrossan defenders and with Rudi hitting tackle after tackle the combination was working well. Stuart was able to pick and battle his way through the tacklers and dive over the line to quickly ground the ball for his 2nd of the match. Again, though Ardrossan battled hard to get another single to keep themselves in the match. Kyran though was able to get 2 more tries for a Hat Trick and put the game to bed for a Cumnock win.

Match Score: Ardrossan 6 – 8 Cumnock

Match 2:
Match 2 began at another very fast pace with the Cubs receiving no let up from our opponents. Calum began this game very well with opening the game up and getting straight to work in defence. Aaron this time took to his heels all over the pitch and was able to show the lightning pace that the entire P4 sections all over the country are ruing with 4 tries in the first half alone. Rudi again continued his demonstration of how to pressure the attackers each and every time they get the ball as he unleashed himself time and again to crush the hopes todays hosts and with this continued pressure was able to score 2 tries of his own making showing not only can he tackle into submission but he can turn on the speed and sidesteps to really press his advantage. Kyran again got another double to bring todays tally to 5 and with his final try coming by way of a sprint which lasted the entire length of this week’s very long pitch to score a tremendous try. First half ended 8 to 1 as our hosts sneaked an excellent try whilst the Cumnock defenders were trying to reset after some more phenomenal tackling this time from Calum, Stuart and Euan. The 2nd half again was extremely well played from the Cougars with passes being very free flowing and the lines being run by the entire team very reminiscent of the Autumn Internationals. This match was very much one of a team performance with excellent offloads and support being the difference in allowing the Cumnock side to ensure that they kept the score line running. In this half Aaron was not only defeating our opponents by scoring another fantastic 4 tries for a 2nd match personal score of 8 but also charging across the field to prevent Ardrossan getting to the try line more than once. Rudi kept the pressure up through both tackling and again another 2 tries. Stuart was able to retrieve an excellent pass and show a rare burst of speed to get past the entire Ardrossan defence and score to keep the Accies defenders wondering where the next attack was coming from. Again, Ardrossan were able to score another to bring their score to 2 for the match.

Match Score : Ardrossan 2 – 15 Cumnock

Match Report By Chris Lisett

Final Score: Ardrossan 8 - 23 Cumnock

Team: Conrad, Stuart, Rudi, Kyran, Calum, Euan & Aaron.