Last Saturday Ellon First XV played their second last game of the season. Taking on Harris from Dundee at the Meadows in the final home game. It was also Presidents Day at the club, which led to a good crowd for the game.
Ellon started rather slow to say the least and Harris scored twice early on as Ellon were caught napping. Two converted tries to Harris gave them a 0-14 lead after 14 minutes. Ellon finally woke up with Captain Brad Fraser scoring after a good catch and return from the kick off, pass to Halmshaw with the final inside pass to Fraser to score, converted by Ross Greig. Mark Galloway then broke a tackle and ran 20 meters before passing to Connor McWilliam to run in a try. Doug Sharp soon broke away and performed a perfect 2v1 pass for Fraser to score again, converted by Greig. Nicki Fraser scored the next Ellon try as he crashed a flat ball over the line, while James Halmshaw ran in the 5th try for Ellon. Harris heads had clearly dropped and Doug Sharp broke three tackles to score, swiftly followed by Scrum Half Ben Shirron to score just on half time. These tries along with the conversions by Greig made it 45-14 at half time. The second half continued in a similar fashion as Ellon ran in 6 more tries (Eddie Holland, John Campbell, Ben Shirron, Connor McWilliam, Ross Greig and Henry Cole) and 2 conversions to Greig. Harris also took advantage of substitutions settling in to score a third try. It wasn’t enough for them to get a bonus point, however Ellon took a 5 point bonus win with the final score being 81-21, more than a point a minute.
Ellon have 1 game left against the top of the table unbeaten Strathmore on the 23rd March. Win or lose this game Ellon will finish exactly mid table in Caledonia 1, in their first season up at this level for many a year. 5th out of 9 teams has been a great season for the very young squad, who will only improve as they age. With nearly all the players, and coaches, having come through the clubs Youth system, it is a great feat for the club.
This weekend the only boys game is the U15 in the Caley Cup who head to Stonehaven to play Mackie. Ellon U16 and U18 are both in the Bowl, but later in March.
Ellon Girls play as part of Grampian Girls in the Cup against Stirling.