MADRAS FESTIVAL MATCH REPORT

Today saw the team make the journey down to St Andrews to play in the Madras RFC festival, our opponents on the day were Madras, Dundee and Kinross.
Our first game was against Dundee and it was certainly a game of two halves. In the first half we were definitely the dominant side as well as scoring two tries the team had some great attacking play opening up the Dundee defence, made tackles time and time again and were controlling the breakdown. This resulted in a 2-0 lead at half time and the halftime talk was all about how well organised our defence was and to keep it up, this was obviously the curse of the coach! Second half was Dundee's half and they drew level and we finished the game in a 2-2 draw. Although the second half didn't go our way there were plenty of positives to take from the game. We have been working on our defensive organisation over the last few sessions and you could see them trying to sort this out during both halves. still needs some work but a good start.
The second game was against Kinross who were going to be the biggest test of the day. Unfortunately we lost this game 4-0 but this was the best we have played against Kinross and the closest score line over the last few seasons. We definitely didn't play our best but still managed to give them a good run for their money, even the referee commented at fulltime that we had been the only team to get that close to Kinross.
Our last game against Madras was a great game to watch with both teams playing some great attacking rugby. With the match tied 4-4 and in the last play of the game with possession we crossed the try line but were unable to ground the ball due to a Madras player targeting the ball which should have resulted in a penalty to us or at least a penalty try, but unfortunately this wasn't given and the game ended in what we thought as a draw. At the final whistle the referee gave the score as a 5-3 win to Ellon which surprised both Madras and ourselves, but with not been given the try in the last play of the game we took this as the right result and we fully deserved the win!
So with 1 win 1 draw and 1 defeat the day was pretty successful. Given it was our first competitive matches of the season the squad looked like they hadn't had a break and had been playing together all summer, with the defensive side of things being the most pleasing part of the day. We will be working on this a lot through the season but they put into practice what we have covered over the last few weeks, so a step in the right direction.