Boroughmuir 37 Ellon 5

Ellon U18 headed down to Edinburgh this Saturday to face Boroughmuir in the National U18 League. After last week’s none event against Glasgow Hawks (they only came with 12 players so the game couldn’t take place! And a training game with 12 v 12 occurred) and an SRU committee ruling being waited upon, this would be Ellon’s first game in this new national League. They came under a lot of pressure in the first 2 minutes due to a missed catch in a swirling wind led to an early try for the home team. Boroughmuir increased the pressure and by half time had a large lead. Just after the half time break, Andrew Forbes took contact at an awkward angle and took a heavy blow on the neck. After a 5 minute stoppage he was taken from the pitch and off to Edinburgh hospital.

Ellon clearly a little shocked by this started to rally together and their superior fitness and team work led to a much better last 15 mins. They played faster more dynamic ruby which led to Man of the Match (for the second week in a row) Matthew Emmison draw three players and pass to James Evans to score the best try of the day. Special mention should go to Daniel Hook on the wing for a great performance in his second game for the club.

Final score was Boroughmuir 37 – Ellon 5. Andrew Forbes was discharged from hospital late Sunday and will be out of rugby until late January at the earliest.

Next up is Ayr away, in another difficult fixture against one of the best teams in Scotland.

Club Vice President Gareth Kemp said “It is a great loss to have Andrew out until January, but we are happy that it wasn’t as serious as first thought”. Head Coach Ross Finlay said “These boys need to take this game as a big learning experience, I think some of the younger members of the squad thought it would be similar rugby to last year at U16, however U18 rugby is a big step up and we have taken an even bigger step up to play National rather than Regional rugby”.