Cumnock Under 18 Report

A combination of waterlogged pitches and an early K.O for Scotland in the autumn tests saw Cumnock U18,s host Dumfries under floodlights at Townhead park on Friday night for what turned out to be a thrilling encounter.
Cumnock got off to a strong start with a solid hard tackling defensive line disrupting the visitors. Cumnock opened the scoring through Jamie Drummond and Robbie Stewart and at this point it was looking like a good night for Cumnock. Unfortunately Dumfries had a different plan and a combination of Cumnock slipping off the tackles and the visitors starting to impose their own game plan saw Dumfries starting to put points on the board. It was only thanks to a late try from Wallace Findlay and Owen Young's accuracy from the tee with 2 conversions and a penalty that Cumnock clung onto a 5 point lead at the break.
Dumfries came out strong to open the scoring after the break and the game was tied at 22-22. It was a testament to this young Cumnock team that they dug deep and got this game back on track. Try's from Euan Bell, Jock Welsh and a second from Wallace with another 2 conversions from Owen gave Cumnock a 41-22 victory.
This was a gutsy performance and could have gone either way and Cumnock showed a lot of character to reimpose their game plan after a slow start to the second half. Much of the credit for this should go to standoff Andy Houston with some lovely kicks to give his team good position and flat passing to release his strike runners.
Head coach Morton Houston said after the match. It would be unfair to pick a man of the match after such a strong team performance but in the forwards Robbie Stewart is fast becoming Cumnock's version of Johnny Gray and Jamie Drummond had his usual barnstorming performance while in the backs Ross Briody was like the Tasmanian devil with the ball in hand and didn't miss a tackle while Adam Watt was a constant thorn in the side to his opposite number and made numerous line breaks.