U16 played up in the Banff 7s on Saturday. A good pitch led to some great rugby. Starting a little slow and only just winning the first game against Turiff 3 - 2, the senior players in the squad read the riot act and got the team going. They didn’t look back from there, beat all six teams (Moray, Huntly, Aberdeen Wanderers, Banff) to win the Banff U16 7s! During the competition 4 of the Ellon squad played for Huntly who were short because of injuries and helped them to beat Banff (Ross Pedan, Josh Mackenzie, Mark Galloway and Ed Holland). Ellon went on to play Aberdeen Wanderers in the final and won 6-2.
Also the same day Ellon U15 travelled to St Andrews for the Madras 7s. With a number of key injuries from the previous weekend finals day, they still travelled with a number of forwards who got their chance to prove themselves. Again, weather was good and the team excepted the challenge and played physical but passing rugby. Winning three games including the third/fourth play-off against Linlithgow, Ellon U15 came away with a third place!
Sunday saw the Ellon Home 7s tournament with teams from all over Caledonia and Edinburgh attending.
At S2 they started against Aberdeen Rugby a little slow, but improved quickly taking an early lead and didn’t let it go. Playing a wide game with a fast defence they won 5 tries to 2. Next was Garioch, after a long break, whether the time was a factor Ellon S2 didn't get close enough to Garioch’s star player and he ran in all the tries. Ellon tried to push too hard and force the game which didn't work with a number of knock-ons. Ellon lost this game 5-2. Ellon however made the Semi-finals on tries scored. This meant they would play Boroughmuir. Playing excellent rugby, up in defence starving the big opposition of ball and getting the ball wide to the wings and backs. Ellon had definitely learned from the last game. Unfortunately they lost in a close game with the Boroughmuir coaches commenting on how well Ellon played and saying that was their hardest game so far. This meant a final game in the 3rd 4th play-off, again against Garioch which was a thriller. Ellon this time closed the star player down for much of the game and took an early lead. This was pegged back before going one down. Then Ellon broke away down the right wing to get back on level terms. One more try each had teams level until Garioch scored in the last play of the game.
Ellon S2's finished 4th after playing some of the best Rugby of the day and indeed the year.

S1 also had a great day of 7s rugby. Playing Highland from Inverness first, they used the offload, tackle and stripped the ball and passed wide, everything they had be training for, and won 8 tires to nil. Second game was against Garioch and featured a few Ellon players in Garioch shirts as it was a mixed team. A little more physical this game , however Garioch played a 15 a side style looking to ruck. This led to Ellon turning ball over easily, shutting down Garioch attacks, and eventually scoring 6 tries to nil. Up last for Ellon was Muntly (a combination of Huntly and Moray). In a much closer game, Ellon scored first, but Muntly came back to make a 2-1 lead at half time. Some excellent cover tackles and turn overs in the second half saw Ellon bring the game to 3-3 with 30 seconds left. Ellon received a penalty and took it quickly to pass wide for Ryan Dickie to score the winning try in the last seconds. Next was the Semi-finals against Mackie, one of the clubs Ellon S1 always struggle against. Mackie came out hard but it was Ellon who scored first. In an exchange of scores they game was close. One Mackie lad let the fierce game go to his head and had to be asked to be substituted (equivalent of a junior yellow card), but the game finished 3 – 3! As it was a semi-final, this led to “golden try”, a 5 minute period where first score wins. The Mackie player subbed earlier was allowed back on. Ellon took control early and the tackles and rucking became intense. 2 ms out from Ellon scoring, Ellon won a scrum, and were moved back to the 5m line for the Scrum. From here Ellon went wide, passing twice to Logan Vavangas who in the process of scoring was high tackled. The ball was knocked on, but due to the high tackle in the process of scoring, a penalty try was awarded. Ellon progressed to the final, while a very disappointed Mackie moved to third/fourth play-off. Muntly went on to beat Mackie also, to come third on the day. In the final Ellon met Aberdeen, in a game where both sets of players were tired, it didn’t take from the game as both teams ran their hearts out. Some great long tries scored and Aberdeen Rugby went on to win 4 – 1. Before and after the final (in fact all day) it was fantastic to see both the Aberdeen and Ellon players especially; mingling, chatting and bonding well, in the true spirit of rugby.
A big thank you to the match day sponsors – RUDDY SERVICES a local property maintenance and building company (www.ruddyservices.com) and CLARK integrated technologies.
A great weekend of 7s rugby for Ellon, made even better by a fantastic home tournament with almost 200 players aged 12, 13 and 14 year olds playing great 7s rugby.