Cumnock U16 35 Newton Stewart U16 5

Report by Ian Park

With the weather changeable at best Cumnock kick off into the wind and quickly settled into their game with the forwards creating good clean ball for the backs to exploit. And it was a text book move that Cumnock opened the scoring with the forwards securing the ball and good hands through the backs to feed Dale West to blast up the wing and score under the posts. Cumnock continued to dominate the first half and scored again through Michael Anderson picking and driving straight through the Newton Stewart defence. The continued pressure by Cumnock forwards allowed scrum half Aiden Kerr to dive over the line from short range to complete the scoring at half time 21 – 0.

Newton Stewart came out more aggressively in the second half and played most of the game in the Nock half, with Cumnock using the wind to kick and break in to the Newton Stewart territory whenever possible. Cumnock were again first to score in this half with centre Bradley Smith powering through to score from about 10 metres out. After that Newton Stewart were camped in front of the Cumnock posts for about 15 minutes but the Nock defence held firm with the forwards making tackle after tackle to stop any score. However the relentless pressure finally paid off as the visitors eventually crossed the line for a well deserved score. With time running out Cumnock advanced up the park and pressured Newton Stewart in to a mistake on the line for Bradley Smith to pounce to score his second try of the game. Calum Park converted the score to make it 5 conversions from 5 at the final whistle to win 35 – 5.
The coaches were very happy with the boys display, particularly the forwards who are putting in a power of work into the game with the defence looking strong with great tackling from the whole pack. The boys are also now starting to produce a bit of variation in their game which should hopefully keep the opposition on their toes for the season ahead.

Team: M McColm, G Young, J Smith, D McCulloch, T Grierson, G Gilliland, M Anderson, R McLaren, A Kerr, G Balmer, C Hill, B Smith, C Park, D West, L Andrew
Subs: A Birrell, A Smith, T Bell, R McCrone