It was a good weekend for the London Scottish U13s and U14s and elsewhere there was a thrilling 20-20 tie for the Scottish U18s.
The London Scottish U14s enjoyed a return to form over the weekend as they triumphed 29-5 over Letchworth. This was a critical game for both clubs and for the Scottish team it was important to reverse the previous heavy league loss.
Scottish, with only fifteen fit players, started well and controlled possession for the opening period. The forwards played well throughout and showed much better technique in contact areas both in attack and defence.
The first score came after six minutes when a fluent move was finished off in the left corner by full-back Isaac who chose exactly the right time to join the attack. Isaac was to go on and have a fine game drawing many compliments from spectators impressed with both his bravery and tenacity.
This score gave the Scottish boys the confidence to start moving the ball through the hands. On twelve minutes a wonderful pass from Archie put the backs away again and the Letchworth team just managed to prevent another score. At the subsequent scrum the ball was lost by Letchworth and this allowed No 8 Daniel the chance to attack the blind-side wing and score in the right corner.
Letchworth then had a fine spell and only some resolute defence from the Scottish boys prevented a score. Indeed it was from defence that the Scottish forwards secured the ball and set up the next attack, a line out in the Scottish half was well won by Noel and the ball was quickly moved to Seb, who, under pressure cleared his lines moving play deep into the Letchworth half. Another line-out steal was fed to scrum-half Josh who timed a lovely pass to fly-half Will who took the ball at pace and breached the Letchworth backs for final score of the half. Iain’s conversion took the score to 17-0.
The second half was a tighter affair with the visitors threatening the Scottish line more often. A kick by the Letchworth fly-half was, though, collected by Isaac and his quick feet created the space for Daniel to take the ball between the posts for the bonus point score just two minutes into the half.
The final action of the half saw the forwards again securing good line-out ball and Seb again kicked deep. Turnover ball was won after a good kick chase and Will sprinted clear for the fifth try which was converted by Josh for a 29-0 lead.
However after some excellent defence by Scottish, including a quality clearance kick from second-row Doug, Letchworth eventually gained their reward for perseverance with the final score of the match.
Congratulations to both teams on a game played in fine spirits. Well done to the Scottish team who, to a person, played some technically very good rugby.
Elsewhere, London Scottish U13s overcame a tough Teddington B side to win 27-10. The four tries scored ensures a bonus point that places Scottish in a secure second place in the league. And in the LV Cup, the U18s drew 20-20 against Pinner, a result that unfortunately sees Scottish exit the tournament. In a game of two halves, the 1st half belonged to Pinner and they were leading 20-6 early in the second half after a good individual try by the Pinner winger collecting a poor Scottish kick.
But Scottish started to keep the ball for longer spells and were rewarded with two strong and well earned tries to bring the scores level. However, Pinner went through to the next round on tries scored.
