Another great rugby twinning weekend!
The weekend started once all the visitors had arrived with a reception meal on the Friday evening, cooked by Jean herself, followed by hosts and visitors watching the Guinness M6N match between Ireland and Italy on the big screen in the Rugby Club.
On the Saturday, the visitors travelled through to Edinburgh and to Scottish Gas Murrayfield to watch an amazing match with Scotland upsetting France’s Grand Slam plans with a fabulous 50-40 victory. The match was played under blue skies with glorious sunshine – a typical Scottish spring day (not)!
A repeat of Saturday? Almost!
Linlithgow Rugby 40 – 19 Plaisir Rugby
Sunday 8th March 2026
Report by ‘Fly Half’ with photos from Graham Black and others
The following day dawned with a repeat of the fabulous weather and at 12-30pm the annual twinning match between Linlithgow and Plaisir kicked off in glorious sunshine. It was a highly entertaining and fairly physical match between two well matched teams and brilliantly refereed by Scottish panel referee Jayme McGoldrick, showing real empathy with the game and players.
Strong driving play around the fringes saw Plaisir take a early lead of 19-7, with tries from centres Louis Bidard and Quentin Cubilier and a third from captain and full back David Charlot. Charles Costino slotted two conversions to add to the visitors’ score.
Louis Bidard touches down for the opening try
In reply, Linlithgow had scored an excellent try through the strong running of Murray Johnstone, who converted his own try.
Muzz bursts through to open Linlithgow’s account
Having shaken off effects of the previous days celebrations, the younger Linlithgow team started to hit their straps and, as they did so, began to grow in confidence. With young half-backs Euan McCartney and Alfie Muir shaping the attack, the strong running outside backs of the home team came more into play. By half-time the scores were level thanks to two tries from full-back Ross ‘Hoochy’ Tulloch, one converted by Murray ‘Muzz’ Johnstone.
Hoochy dots down for one of his two first half tries
Half Time Score:
The second half was just as competitive, with both sides fully deploying their benches. However, the fitness and strong running of the home side was not to be denied and three further tries, all converted by ‘Muzz’ meant that Linlithgow finished on top in the scoring.
The tries came from ‘Hoochy’ who completed his hat-trick following a superb solo run right through the heart of the Plaisir defence, Ewan Curran who was up fast to dive on the bouncing ball following a fine kick through from John Strachan and Archie Rusack who dotted down with a loud whoop as he finished off a fine move.
Determination written on his face – Archie Rusack bursts through for his try
Despite huge pressure late in the second half, when Plaisir were camped almost on the home team line, Linlithgow held out to deny the visitors any further scores.
Full Time score:
Linlithgow Team
Front row: Aiden Mochrie, Stuart Cunningham, Matty Sommervile
Second row: Fraser Mochrie (capt), Eioan Magee
Back row: Fin Chadwick, Lewis McGill, Oscar Davies
Half-backs: Euan McCartney, Alfie Muir
Centres: Aidan Rennison, Murray Johnstone
Back three: Fraser Miller, Luke O’Hara, Ross Tulloch
Bench (all featured):
Calum McKeown, Kyle Ormond, Tom Gardner, Colin Devlin, Ross Wells, Archie Rusack, Calum Lindsay, John Strachan, Ewan Curran, Pierre Cloupet, Nick Chadwick
Coach and support team:
Euan Mochrie, Alan Dowell
Plaisir Team
Comment
A thoroughly entertaining match played in glorious weather. ‘Chapeau‘ to both sides.
It was great to see Aidan Rennison back playing rugby and he was awarded MoTM
Special mention for Linlithgow’s ‘Muzz’ Johnstone who successfully struck five out of six conversion attempts, two from wide out on either side of the pitch. Also a big mention to Nick Chadwick, for his brief cameo performance off the bench. Nick played in the first match as a schoolboy back in 1985 and hasn’t looked back since! Joining his son Fin in the Reds’ pack was another highlight for the big man.
Special shout-out to Gina Martin who took Wilfried Houzelot to St John’s where his dislocated was put back in promptly, though they had to wait several hours for various tests on Wilfried before being released to return to the Club and the festivities that were by then in full swing!
After the match, the players and the visitors’ hosts sat down to a superb meal prepared by ‘Simmer Doon’, before the speeches and presentations. For post match entertainment, the Club laid on electronic soft-tipped darts, which went down well with all and the festivities continued well into the night with singing, dancing and body-surfing!
All good things, unfortunately, must come to an end and our visitors dragged themselves out of bed on Monday morning for their returns to the Paris area, either by train, car or plane – no boats involved to the author’s knowledge!
Well done to everyone, players, visitors, hosts and supporters alike. We can now look forward to celebrating the 40th anniversary match in Plaisir next year!