Cumnock Festival

This week the young Cumnock Cougars P4 team hosted East Kilbride, Lenzie, Dumfries & Ardrossan at our annual Cumnock RFC Festival which is our first at our brand-new Broomfield. We began the day with a gentle warm up so as not to tyre the team out as we had a five-match game day ahead of us. With our largest ever squad we were able to field a fantastic team full of talent. A special mention has to be made to Calleigh who played her first ever game of rugby today and made a fantastic debut for the red and black.
With a fire burning inside the brave kids of all teams we really worked hard and battled against our tough adversaries to ensure that each team knew we did not intend for anything other than victory to be the way of the day. With 4 victories from 5 we would end the day with a wonderful 2nd place but with an overall score showing a much different story.

Match 1: Cumnock 8 – 3 Ardrossan (A)
We kicked off the tournament in great style against Ardrossan (A) team and as was the case last week it was a fantastic competition from start to finish. Ross opened up the days scoring with a very quick try was to be the first of a brace for the game. Our constant defending prowess really shone through in this match as throughout the entire 10 minute match the young Broomfield warriors were able to only allow 3 tries against them. This then led further tries from Neil, Alfie, Jake and a wonderous debut try from Callie to prove that the P4s were here to establish a fantastic start to the tournament.

Match 2: Cumnock 6 – 5 Lenzie
Again, we started match 2 very well however a far more improved Lenzie team than we were used to stopped us in our tracks on the first couple of advances and got themselves on the scorecard first. This did not unsettle our young heroes and the slick defence from Stuart, Rudi, Adam K, Adam S and Euan were able to get us back on track and stop what may have become a very different match than what we intended. Encouraged by this amazing show of strength tries from Aaron, Alfie, Ross and a magnificent try from Daniel really kept the forward momentum going whilst Lenzie were able to punish any rare handling errors.

Match 3: Cumnock 3 – 7 Dumfries
Our 3rd match was known to be the toughest of the day as we were playing against a very highly skilled Dumfries Saints P4 team. In our previous encounters we have drawn against them and also defeated them but each time it has been closely fought and this time was no exception. Despite a stalwart defence from our amazing players we were shown that Dumfries have gone away from their recent defeat from us at Hamilton’s Tournament and drilled hard. Despite tries from Ross, Aaron and a special try from Adam K this time we were unable to stop the leaks and prevent our first defeat at our new Broomfield home.

Match 4: Cumnock 6 – 3 Ardrossan (B)
Our 4th game of the festival was against another of our recent opponents in Ardrossan (B). Spurred on by our recent defeat our young heroes began this game at an enormous rate. Tries came thick and fast from Neil, Jake, Aaron, Alfie Ross and an especially powerful try from Stuart meant that this time Ardrossan would not be able to capitalise in the way that Dumfries were able to. Added to this a resurgent defence headed by Neil, Adam S, Calleigh and Daniel was again able to prevent most of the advances of the attackers.

Match 5: Cumnock 12 – 4 East Kilbride
Our final game was against last week’s hosts who came to prove that they remain a very skilled opponent despite last weeks defeat. However, our young Cougar Cubs had already decided that this would not matter as another victory was Plan A and Plan B would not be required as this is exactly how it panned out. East Kilbride were able to carve out 4 very well worked tries but this would not be enough to match the passion from the home side and the mighty dozen that they would get past them in return. In our final game Alfie bagged another treble, Jake danced his way through for a great show for his hat trick, Aaron brought the speed for another double and Ross the rocket blasted through another full team, Neil grabbed another double whilst Adam S had a special try in the corner

Overall Score: Cumnock 35 – 22 Opponents

Squad: Calleigh, Neil, Adam K, Ross, Alfie, Jake, Euan, Adam S, Aaron, Daniel Stuart, Kyran & Rudi.

Match Report by Chris Lisett