Cumnock Under 16 Report

Cumnock continued their impressive start to their conference campaign with a 7 try to 2 win over Livingstone. Despite personnel problems with 9 players injured or unavailable Cumnock still managed to turn out a strong team which was able to compete for the full 70 minutes despite a shortage of replacements.

Cumnock got off to a bright start as Jock Welsh fed Jamie Drummond through a gap. Drummond timed an offload beautifully to free Andy Houston who ran in from 35 metres for the first score converted by Ross Marr. A second followed for Dylan Chidwick as he burst through the defence before rounding the full back for a score in the corner. Cumnock struggled to turn pressure into points for the rest of the half as they demonstrated uncharacteristically poor passing and off loading. This led to a number of golden chances being needlessly squandered. The home side did claim a third before half time as Jamie Drummond rounded off a sweeping movement by diving in at the corner leaving the score 17 – 0 at the break.

In the second half Cumnock played better and had a number of good attacks before Houston burst through with only the 15 to beat. A well timed pass saw Rob Drummond free to canter in for a score between the posts which was again converted by Marr. A second followed which was the mirror of the first. This time Jamie Drummond ran through on the 15 and nailed a wide pass to Kevin Van Der Leest who sprinted in for a 30 metre score.

Livingstone mounted a spirited fight back at this point and through sustained pressure scored 2 well deserved tries. Cumnock added 2 more well taken tries from Ross Briodie and Jock Welsh to make the final score 39-10.

Coach Mark Van Der Leest commented, “ This was a pretty good performance with some really nice rugby played. Some of our sweeping moves linking forwards and backs were great to watch. We will need to do a bit of work on our scrum and our ruck defence but I am pleased at where we are at at this time of the season. This is our third league win and places us handily for the rest of the season. There are still some tough games to go however and we will need to be at our best to sustain our title challenge”.

Next week Cumnock are away to East Kilbride.