Poor performance against a weak West of Scotland Team

However were dealt a blow before the bus even leaving with two starting players calling off with sickness. That left Ellon travelling with only 15 players. In perfect conditions in Milngavie, Ellon started the better side, by taking the game to West, but missed an early penalty. As the game continued, both teams didn’t seem to be performing well. Ellon totally dominated the scrum with numerous against the head and with Callum Addy taking the ball off his opposite scrum half on a number of occasions. The line out was similar with Matty Royce throwing in and Matthew Emmison taking the ball at the front or middle; and stealing 50% of West’s ball also. With this much dominance at set piece Ellon really should have done better. The attack play was lacklustre and the ball just didn’t go wide, with pods breaking down after one phase and support lines wrong. Not to take anything away from West’s defence, which was very good. In fact their defence and the fact that they took every ball into contact with someone behind them to support was brilliant, be it all they had to offer.
Ellon’s only try was some great skill by three players, Callum Addy stripping the scrum half at the back of a scrum, passing to Neil Rattray on the wing who stayed strong in the tackle, on his feet waiting for support and then down to set the ruck, ball was popped to Man of the Match Matthew Emmison who drove very strong and low 8 meters and in for a score on the right wing. Conversion by James Evans. Final score was 24 – 7 to West with the additional note that Grant Drummond took a knock to the head which as a precautionary measure means he can’t play the last two games of the Cross Border Premier League.
Vice President Gareth Kemp, who travelled with the U18s to watch the game, said “Clearly a disappointing result and performance by the young lads”. “They know they didn’t play well, but it is up to them to lift themselves, train this week, and aim for a decent performance and win against Glasgow next week”.