The P3 played a Tag festival with two teams entered and despite the misty rain had a great time. The other four age bands played in the main tournament and all managed to reach the semi-finals (or in P4 case would have if there had been semis)!
The P4 team played 4, won 3 and lost 1. The loss came early before they had screwed their rugby heads on, and it was against the eventual pool winners Mackie 1. However the other 3 were pretty comprehensive wins including a stunning 7-0 win against Deeside! Unfortunately as there were no semi-final stages the campaign ended at the pool stage!
The coaches are always looking for the performance of the team. Mike and Donna agreed that those 3 winning TEAM performances filled them with such pride and pleasure it will be a long time before smiles leave their faces.
P5 team also played four games, against Wanderers, Grammar, Deeside and Garioch. The lads played very well from the start and continued throughout the event. Plenty of tackling and running, and some outstanding rucking and try saving tackles. The team no longer sat back, but pushed up at the attacking team with a strong defense, although the shape of the team needs to stay stronger. They won 2, lost 1 and drew 1.
Ellon P6 took two teams for the Garioch event. The Gold team were drawn in a tough group and sustained two heavy defeats to Grammar and Mackie. The team didn’t let their heads drop and with some great support they went into the final game against Garioch and beat them 4 – 0. A great come back as Garioch had played very well against Grammar and Deeside. The second Ellon team were disappointed to find out that Wanderers hadn’t come with a P6 team, so missed one fixture, however the remaining two were outstanding games to watch and play in. With a very close loss to Deeside, they played intensive rugby against Mackie 2 for a good win to progress to the Semi Finals. The team tackled well and battled for every ball. Ben Dickie, Logan Vavangas and Adam Fowlie’s work rate was incredible for such young lads and the rest of the team worked off them to produce a very good team effort. However Mackie 1 beat Ellon in the semi, but by a very narrow margin. All parents and supporters agreed what a great performance over the three games.
P7 opponents in the group stages today were Huntly, Garioch, and Deeside.
In the first game against Huntly the boys played the best rugby they have played all season. The defensive pressure they put Huntly under was relentless and never gave them a chance to build any sort of attack. In attack they were just as with Huntly not crossing the half way line, all the pressure paid off and they won 3-0.
The second game against Garioch was just as good, great performances from all the boys in a very tight game. Both teams played some great rugby but Ellon had the majority of the possession which paid off in the last minute when Ellon scored the only try of the game. A great game for the neutral, but nervous for the coaches! In the last pool game Ellon lost to a strong Deeside team, but they had made the semifinals. This was against Mackie where Ellon let them have too much of the ball and didn’t put them under enough pressure in the first half. From 3 – 0 down at half time, Ellon finished 4 – 1 after drawing the second half with some determined tackles and a good running for the try.
This Sunday is the final event before the holidays, away in Perth against a number of clubs in the Positive Coaching Scotland festival. This is P4-S2.