Ellon First XV took on Deeside Saturday at the Meadows. Deeside recently won promotion to Caledonia Division 1, but due to a huge loss of players over the summer, they have volunteered to come down to Caledonia 2N again.
The game was played with uncontested scrums as Deeside didn’t’ t have a complete front row, which went against Ellon’s hopes as they had a strong scrum and wanted a decent run out.
Deeside played a tactical game to start, kicking the ball at every opportunity, however this was soon sussed out by Ellon, who sat their wingers deeper. This did effect the Ellon attack though, as they had further to run onto the ball. From a non-straight line out let go, Deeside kicked over the top and sneaked a score against the run of play. This along with a catch and huge hand off by Ben Shirron spured Ellon into life. Doug Sharp soon used his strength to score, converted by Stewart Cruickshank. 7 – 7. Ellis Swainston then made a strong drive and a huge reach to just get over the line. Ben Shirron then caught a kick in his own half, zig zagging back up the pitch, passing the entire Deeside backs and back row to score on the wing. 17 – 7. Sam Tateson then go the bonus point try just prior to half time. 24 – 7. At the start of the second half, Stewart Cruickshank breaks from a ruck, at the next ruck Ben Shirron sniped to score. 29 – 7. Trying out different things now the points were in the bag, Ellon stand-off Callum Addy kicked a few times, finding some great spots. The forwards also got a maul moving up the pitch and scored with Doug Sharp on the wing. 36 – 7. Doug Sharp picked up his hat trick scoring with a reverse of play to him standing wide. The game finished with Sam Tateson breaking clear and running in a 60m try under the posts for Cruickshank to convert. Final score 48 – 7, just shy of 50.
This result takes Ellon to top of the table in Caledonia 2NE. This coming Saturday they take on Banff at the Meadows in the League, knowing that the following week they have a break as Stornoway have withdrawn from the Caledonia Bowl, giving Ellon a bye to the next round. Banff recently promoted to this league will be on a high after traveling to Shetland last weekend and winning.

Also on Saturday Ellon U18 travelled to Perthshire in the Red Conference. Their first game this season in the conference. Although it was a close first half, Ellon found themselves 12 – 0 down at half time. However after being spoken to at half time, the second half they roared into a 12 – 14 lead with 10 minutes left. With a couple of yellow cards to Perthshire as they got frustrated, Ellon scored via Tyler Will and Ryan Notton, with both conversions by Ross Grieg. It a final twist, Perthshire slotted a great penalty from the side line to take the game 15 – 14! The Ellon boys did perform well and they will take a lot from the game into the next round of fixtures.
Sunday saw the U16 U15 U14 and U13 travel to Perthshire also in the Red Conference.
U16 played a development match due to payer numbers being reduced due to a few players away sick and a couple of knocks from the previous week. U14 lost out to a Perthshire team who worked hard all the game and sneaked an early and late try to steal the game, with Ben Dickie and Fin Hagen scoring, converted by Ewen Orus and Ben Dickie. Final score was 23 – 8. The whole squad and coaches felt that we should have won the game, and let it slip a bit. U13 had a hard day, as they came across a strong Perth team with a big squad.
Ellon U15s had the best performance in the Youth Section this weekend, making it two wins in a row at this level. The sun was beating down with clear blue skies. The team were all raring to go and on the pitch ready for the 13:00 kick off.
Perthshire kicked off to Ellon, who gathered the ball well and shipped it out to Aidan Laing on the wing, who proceeded to run down the left at blinding pace to score the first try of the match in the first minute. Caleb Jack stepped up calmly and slotted the conversion between the uprights. Perthshire restarted the game and came up to meet Ellon and tackled well and were quicker off the mark into the ruck than Ellon resulting in a turnover ball, which they then carried through to score their first try. No conversion. Ellon boys restarted the game and just as quickly showed Perthshire that they could do the same thing. Great tackling and rucking over to secure the ball which was promptly shipped to Jack Duncan who ran through to score our second try which was again converted by Caleb. Ellon retained the ball well after the restart and worked through several phases before getting the ball to the backs again, this time for Caleb to run in the try and successfully convert. An Ellon knock in resulted in the first scrum of the game, Perthshire won the scrum and ran a couple of phases before Ellon rucked over and won the ball back and getting the ball to hooker Daniel Brown who after a determined run, scored in behind the posts and converted by Caleb. A Perthshire knock on from their own lineout led to a scrum to Ellon, we won the scrum and passed out wide fast for Julian Kedziora to run in a try to the corner, conversion missed from the wide position. Perthshire kicked to touch from a penalty for their lineout, Ellon won the lineout ball and again shipped the ball quickly to the backs with Jack running in the try this time and Caleb slotting home the conversion.
Half time – Perthshire 5, Ellon 40
Second half. Ellon kicked off the second half, Perthshire took the ball well and ran at us through the middle to score the first try of the second half. Missed conversion. Perthshire coaches had clearly managed to rally their squad at the half time break with them coming at us fast and furious, which caused us to panic a little and make mistakes at the rucks resulting in several penalties to Perthshire, resulting in them running in a couple of quick tries against us. Ellon boys dug deep and regained composure and making the tackles stick once more and regaining possession of the ball. Aidan receives the ball and runs down the left channel to score in the corner. Caleb kicks from the wide position, but the ball falls short of the posts. The game then became a very close tie between the two sides, both determined to do well. Perthshire scored another try, followed quickly by another quick try from Jack with the conversion going wide of the posts this time. Perthshire came back to score the final try of the game.
Final Score – Perthshire 32, Ellon 57
A great performance by each and every one of the U15 squad today, digging deep when Perthshire came back at us and still route out scoring opportunities.
Nominated man of the match was Jack Duncan.

This coming weekend the Youth Section take on Deeside Wanderers in the Red Conference at home. U18 Saturday and the rest Sunday.