Written by Ian Hannah
On a great weekend of rugby for all levels of the club, London Scottish U17s were pleased to continue the club success with an emphatic win against Haringey Rhinos. The Scots are now joint top of the league with one match to play!
The support we get from Friends of Scottish Rugby has allowed the coaching team to develop the sides attacking flair, as well as their dogged defence. Both of which were shown in abundance on Sunday as the team put in a great shift away from home to keep the opposition scoreless whilst running in some great tries themselves.
Going into the match knowing that they had to win you would have forgiven the lads if they had started nervously. However, they showed they were up for this one right from the off, fielding the kick off and running it straight back to put the opposition under pressure. Within minutes the boys had worked themselves into a good position and Matty ran in the first try in the left hand corner. Arun was next on the scoresheet after a kick through as he showed his speed to get his hand to the ball just in front of the opposition wing. The third came from good work through the hands with Ted coming into the line from full back and going over on the right. Sam ran in the next one to take the score to 20-0 and a bonus point midway through the first half.
Gabe then got on the scoresheet following a lineout on the right around the 22m line. With the ball won cleanly off the top it was put through the hands for Gabe playing on the left wing to finish. The Scots continued to show technical dominance and took one against the head at the scrum, no mean feat as the opposition definitely had a weight advantage in the forwards. The ball went out right on the first phase, and then back left before a knock on in the 22 halted the move. Continuing to harass the opposition in their 22 the Scottish backline was quick to follow up on Haringey’s poor lineout throw and shipped the ball to Finn to score under the posts, Max duly converted to make it 32-0. A yellow card for Haringey gave Scottish a numbers advantage just before half time, with Max putting the penalty into the corner. From the resulting lineout Scottish won the ball and put it through the hands for Ben to go in on the right. 37-0 and half time.
The Scots turned around for the second half and continued in a similar vein with Joe going in under the posts after picking up the pass in the centres. Max converted to take the lead out to 44-0. The coaches started playing guys in different positions and moved Cameron to centre, Arun to hooker, Harry to the wing and so on. It was pleasing to see that this didn’t disrupt the players and they adapted well and again played the ball through the hands from a scrum in mid-field to allow Ted in for his second. Tom M followed up with a score on the right after more good handling from the guys. Pressure on the Haringey line and Finn pounced on the knock on to take it to 59-0. The final score came from a quick penalty taking the ball deep into the 22, and the next phase seeing Joe get his second which, with the conversion gave the guys a 66-0 result.
Whilst it sounds like it was one way traffic, it wasn’t, and full credit to the guys for their linespeed and commitment in the tackle area. At tiHaringeyngey were camped on our line, battering away with their big men. The Scots gave away a series of penalties in their eagerness to close down the attacker and make the tackle. However, to keep the line intact was impressive stuff, and the guys can take a lot of heart from that!
Our final match is at home on the 28th April as we take on Bishops Stortford who, alongside the Scots, also have 21 points in the league. It should be a fantastic match to finish the season on as it’s a winner takes all finale. Why not come along and watch?
