200202 U14s v Highland

With a lot of lads off sick, injured or playing up, we went with what we had and used some of the highland players to make up the team.

Highland are a really strong team and suspect much more used to playing on the 4g pitch then our lads. They got off to a very strong start and our lads slightly allowed their heads to drop. After a quick a chat, I have to say that they really lifted their heads and worked hard for the rest of the match. Their continued effort in trying to overcome highland was a massive positive for me.

In the final period, Highland gave us their 3 strongest runners and this made a big difference with Highland not scoring in the final period. Whilst we were limited on the attacking options for the whole match, it was good to see that we were still holding our own from a defensive point of view, allowing the strong runners to run in a few try's for us and claw back some points.

That being said, there was a lot of weak tackles and rucking and this is something we are definitely going to focus on this week prior to Garioch at the weekend. I appreciate we have worked a lot of attack lately, but that doesn't mean we have to take our foot off in defence.

A long day but very well done to all who attended. I do believe if we had a full team we would have potentially turned them over on their home turf which they really would not have fancied.....!!!