Cumnock / Kilmarnock @ Glasgow District S2 Festival

The Cougars had a full complement of players and were looking forwards to the event.

First up was the opening game against Glasgow Hawks. The Cougars are notoriously slow starters and Hawks capitalised on a couple of errors to run in two quick tries, both of which were converted. The boys woke up after that and started to take control of the game, with a fine back line break ending up with Taylor Howie crossing the whitewash for a magnificent try, with David Smith converting. Unfortunately shortly afterwards the referee signalled the end of the game after only 15 minutes, the games apparaently being shortened without the coaches being made aware. Final score Hawks 8 Cougars 4.

Next up the Cougars played Ayr, but only after a break of around 50 minutes. Again a slow start say Ayr score two quick tries before the Cougars realised what was happening. After that though they worked their way back into the game and another period of intense pressure saw Howie score his second oftheday, again converted by Smith. Once again the clock beat the team but it was encouraging to notethe improved performance against their old adversaries. Ayr 7 Cougars 4.

After yet another 50 minutes or so the boys finally got to play again. In the intervening period though they had some words of encouragement from former Cumnock player Mark Bennet and his team-mates from Glasgow Warriors. This lifted the spirits but some indifferent tackling and sloppy defensive work at a lineout saw opponents Ardrossan take a firm grip of the game, running in three tries to cancel out that scored by Andrew Harkiss, again converted by the ever reliable Smith. Ardrossan 9 Cougars 4.

Although disappointed by some of the effort put in by the players there is much to be proud of. In particular the way the team rallied against Ayr, providing them with their stiffest game of the day and making their opponents hang on for the final whistle was a joy to watch. However with only 45 minutes of rugby played in a six hour day both the coaches and players would question the benefit in such a festival. The team should bounce back from this set back in are looking forward to their next game in April.