ELLON S1 PLAY OUTSTANDING RUGBY

S1 also had a great day of 7s rugby. Playing Highland from Inverness first, they used the offload, tackle and stripped the ball and passed wide, everything they had be training for, and won 8 tries to nil. Second game was against Garioch and featured a few Ellon players in Garioch shirts as it was a mixed team. A little more physical this game , however Garioch played a 15 a side style looking to ruck. This led to Ellon turning ball over easily, shutting down Garioch attacks, and eventually scoring 6 tries to nil. Up last for Ellon was Muntly (a combination of Huntly and Moray). In a much closer game, Ellon scored first, but Muntly came back to make a 2-1 lead at half time. Some excellent cover tackles and turn overs in the second half saw Ellon bring the game to 3-3 with 30 seconds left. Ellon received a penalty and took it quickly to pass wide for Ryan Dickie to score the winning try in the last seconds. Next was the Semi-finals against Mackie, one of the clubs Ellon S1 always struggle against. Mackie came out hard but it was Ellon who scored first. In an exchange of scores they game was close. One Mackie lad let the fierce game go to his head and had to be asked to be substituted (equivalent of a junior yellow card), but the game finished 3 – 3! As it was a semi-final, this led to “golden try”, a 5 minute period where first score wins. The Mackie player subbed earlier was allowed back on. Ellon took control early and the tackles and rucking became intense. 2 ms out from Ellon scoring, Ellon won a scrum, and were moved back to the 5m line for the Scrum. From here Ellon went wide, passing twice to Logan Vavangas who in the process of scoring was high tackled. The ball was knocked on, but due to the high tackle in the process of scoring, a penalty try was awarded. Ellon progressed to the final, while a very disappointed Mackie moved to third/fourth play-off. Muntly went on to beat Mackie also, to come third on the day. In the final Ellon met Aberdeen, in a game where both sets of players were tired, it didn’t take from the game as both teams ran their hearts out. Some great long tries scored and Aberdeen Rugby went on to win 4 – 1. Before and after the final (in fact all day) it was fantastic to see both the Aberdeen and Ellon players especially; mingling, chatting and bonding well, in the true spirit of rugby.

A big thank you to the match day sponsors – RUDDY SERVICES a local property maintenance and building company (www.ruddyservices.com) and CLARK integrated technologies.