|
News Article |
| CAITHNESS FESTIVAL REPORT - 3RD APRIL 2011 |
| Mon 11th Apr 2011 |
 A 6am start with cool temperatures, sunshine and showers the Moray Minis set off on their coach trip to Caithness. They arrived at Wick in good time to relax at the venue, and to stay dry, before venturing out onto the pitches.
With a welcome and good amount of parental/family support both teams set out to play their games.
 P4/5 was almost at full strength, and opened up with a convincing 10-0 win over Caithness 3. Wing possession particularly from Daniel Cotton and Cairan Gunn, showed that they had good width, and did not rely upon central strength.
Another win followed, and then P4/5 experienced two hard matches against Highland and Orkney. Both games were very tough, ending up with the wrong score lines, but their efforts in did both games did not go with out praise as the P4/5 squad showed their ability to play hard against strong opposition, even if one of the teams did not follow SRU ruling on encroachment!
 But the day ended up with a win against Caithness 2, which showed that the squad dug deep, after a long tiring day to gain another victory!
Noticeable efforts from Jake Devlin and Ewan Ball in their ball carrying and tackling were highly valued. Based upon the festivals remit, the squads MVP was Daniel Cotton for his consistent leadership and try scoring efforts.
The squad’s overall play showed how their training over the season has continued to improve their workload and quality, with an improvement in tackling especially when defending close to own try line!
Commitment and effort all round – well done! Even when one P4/5 pitch was a mud bath, while the other was well covered in grass, which changed their tactics!?
 Meanwhile, P6/7 had a good festival with some of the best team play I`ve seen in a while.
P6/7 were unlucky to hit Highland 1st up, although they were all over them in the 1st 5 minutes and were 2-1 up as a result with strong running from Ruairidh and Rory. But, Highland turned this around, to win 4-2.
We then had 3 wins against Lochaber, Orkney 2 and Nairn. Some excellent interpassing play started to appear resulting in tries! Best try had the ball going through 5 pairs of hands at pace with Mouse scoring in the corner.
Last game against Caithness had Ian score on the stroke of full time for a 2 all score. Tiredness, cold and too many hot dogs had taken there toll!!
 Best features were the team spirit, interpassing play and support which was the best I`ve seen from these guys, and no dropping of heads. There are still areas which we can see can be developed, and all the boys had their moments and whilst Ian got the man of the team award for superb tackling, overall this was a good all round team performance.
The team played like a unit, with passing improved, and a solid team performance.
Ironically, we all left Wick in 'glorious sunshine'!!!
Phil Kelly & Angus Gunn with photos by John Lally
* Some more photos from this event can be found in our Gallery here.
|
| Back to News Archive |
|
n
Caledonia 2 North |
|
|
|
| Aberdeenshire |
12 |
46 |
| Highland 2nd XV |
11 |
46 |
| Moray |
12 |
40 |
| Ross Sutherland |
10 |
22 |
| Banff |
12 |
19 |
| Mackie |
10 |
10 |
| Aberdeen Grammar 2nd XV |
9 |
1 |
|
Last 1st XV Game |
| 1st XV Season (2021/22) |
| Banff 33 - 39 Moray |
| 5th Mar 22 - KO: 15:00 |
| Venue: Duff House |
|
