Reds U16 maintain strong start to the season with win against dogged Dunbar side

Linlithgow U16  45 – 21  Dunbar

Saturday 5 October 2024

Report by Nick Smith

A midweek epidemic of “sore knees” put pay to some players involvement in today’s game.  However our strength in depth meant we had no problem fielding a full 22 man squad – which could not be said for Dunbar. They arrived with 15 players which made us all (spectators, players and coaches) concerned that wouldn’t see a full game of rugby.

Dunbar kicked off straight to Greig who gratefully took the ball and made great strides into the Dunbar defence, bouncing off the first tackler.  This tackler would probably not have described it as a “bounce” and took a few minutes to recover, catch his breather and find his feet.  Importantly though he stayed on the pitch and on we went.

We started well moving the ball wide on a few occasions and looked threatening.  However we soon discovered we were in for a game as Dunar exploited our lack of numbers at the breakdown and stole a couple of early turn-overs.  They looked equally threatening in attack, causing us real problems on the blind side in particular.  However we adapted, greater commitment from the forwards and a some quick passing from Max saw us gain the upper hand.

It wasn’t long before Finaly Mac was in for the first try, taking a clever angle to off set their defence and charging over the line.

This seem to fire Dunbar up and they came back at us hard.  However some strong tackling by Duncan and Callum D in particular held them at bay.

Our next try came from some rather scrappy play again around the base of what could be seen as a melee of rucks or rather more easily as one big messy one. In the end Max reacted the quickest and tapped the ball over the line to score.

Again Dunbar were not finished and they came back hard. Their scrum-half broke through a number of tackles to score against the run of play.

At this point Conor replaced his brother Cameron in the front row – not only are they similar in stature but also in style of play, with both players making some strong carries up the middle of the pitch. Alex K also came on for Daniel and we lost nothing in terms of ballast in the front row as we dominated the Dunbar scrum.

We weren’t done with scoring, with both Thomas and Alfie adding to the tally before the first half was done.  Thomas spotted and half gap and broke through it to take his; while Alfie threw an outrageous dummy to leave the crowd stunned, and then ran half the length of the pitch to score his.  We finished the half well up.

The second half saw a few changes with Alexander replacing the ever-industrious Tom, A pair of Anguses coming on for Calum and Alex E, Elliot slotting into the back row for Ewan and finally Joe taking over at scrum half from Max.

We talked at half time about keeping our structure, slowing it down and playing to our strengths.  We did this at times and looked good.  However the pressure at the rucks meant we weren’t always able to get 3 players in the next pod which left us vulnerable at the breakdown.  Having said that we also won our fair share of the turnovers with Cammy in particular looking making some crucial interventions.

It’s fair to say that Dunbar caused us more problems in this half.  This is where we should have made our superior numbers count but we just couldn’t quite get our flow.  They also kicked more and put us under pressure and made us play in our own half.

However were still the stronger team, with some great offloading taking us up and the pitch.  Greig then charged from a tap penalty and was in over the line.

The next try went to Alex E after some nice play from Angus C drawing his man and putting Alex away – to be fair he still had 60 yards to run but no one was catching him at this point.

Angus M then took his turn, picking up from the back of the scrum in his own half and haring up the pitch.  He wasn’t straight in and had to step a couple of times before creating enough space to get in, in the corner.

Dunbar took a consolation try at the end and we finished the game 45-21.

There were some strong performances across the pitch with some great tackling from Duncan, Ewan, Calum and Ali B in particular.  As well as some great moments: Joe’s round the back pass to Angus C which almost saw him in for a try.  However man of the match this week goes to Cammy. His was a great all round backrow performance, linking play, creating turnovers and constantly on hand to secure our ball.

Bring on Dollar on Wednesday – it will no doubt be a tough one.