Match Report - Sunday 11/09/16 - Ellon (12) v Deeside Wanderers (12)

The Ellon U13 took on Deeside/Wanderers today in a thoroughly entertaining match. The lads did themselves proud and came away with a draw. A great result as the boys had worked hard since last weekends game. Thanks also go to the 3 Wanderers players who boosted our numbers so we could play 15 a side.

The first period of play saw Deeside Wanderers winning the toss and electing to receive the kick off from Ellon to try and put on the pressure from the start, however Ellon used their line speed and quickly gained possession and started their advance into the Deeside Wanderers half. There were many tackles from Deeside as the Ellon boys kept trying to advance towards the try line, however too many knock on's resulted in scrums being awarded to Deeside. Ellon kept the pressure on however just could not get that elusive first try after a tremendous amount of effort Deeside manged to defend their try line. The first period of play ended with no score however it was definitely dominated by Ellon.

The second period started with both teams fairly evenly matched however Deeside started to apply their own pressure and were stronger in the scrums and rucks and six minutes into the period scored their first try by driving hard through the middle and rucking over to put the ball under the posts. It was becoming a tough physical game as Ellon tried to match Deeside crashing ball continuously through the middle however this resulted in a couple of injuries as Sam Douglas went off and then Charlie Skinner received a high tackle which required substitution while he recovered, the Deeside boy was lucky not to be sent off. Deeside then applied a bit more pressure and scored again in the eleventh minute however Ellon fought back but again could not get over the Deeside try line. Second period ended with two converted tries for Deeside.

The Ellon lads started the final period strong again and hungry to get some points on the board and again put the Deeside defence under pressure with strong rucking and retained possession moving the ball around the field and finally in the seventh minute the pressure paid off with Ryan Dickie running in a score on the right wing. Ryan also converted his try. Deeside then took the game right back to Ellon and scored in the eleventh minute to go 3 tries to 1 try ahead, however the Ellon lads were not going to give up and with the restart charged down through the opposition rucking over and keeping possession and moving the ball wide for Ryan Dickie to score again at twelve and half minutes in the period. Bouyed up by their belief in themselves Ellon quickly stripped Deeside of possession again and were attacking the Deeside line again in the last minute of the game. A scrum was award to Deeside 10 metres from their try line inside the final minute, however Deeside pushed too early before the ball went into the scrum and Ellon were awarded a penalty which they quickly took passing wide for Ryan Dickie to score his third try in the left corner. This put Ryan under pressure to convert his kick to draw the game, which he took in his stride. Final score 12 points each with Ellon scoring three tries in the final period.

Awards for today:
Best Forward: Patrick Bridges
Best Back: Ryan Dickie
Best Rugby Attitude: Charlie Skinner