Saturday saw the players presented with their winners medals and cup from last seasons perfect league debut.
The presentation saw the players on the pitch at half time during the 1st Xv’s game receiving the applause from a packed crowd. After that is was great for them and their parents to watch the 1sts come from behind to win their match in the second half.
Sunday saw them play Barnet in the league. On another blustery day, the London Scottish U14s tackled well preventing the opposition from scoring, eventually getting a bonus point win by 4 tries to none.
Starting with a brief period of defence the Scottish backs managed to break out wide to score: the ball was passed though the hands to the winger and Marcel broke through a couple of tackles to run in from half-way. The try was unconverted.
While Scottish then had the majority of possession there were a number of occasions when the team was penalised for infringements at the ruck – nearly 10 penalties were conceded in the first half. However, the team, for the first time this season, really made their tackles count. The tackles were going in low and hard, and stopping the big guys from Barnet from making any ground, often knocking them back from the gain line and preventing Barnet from making any meaningful territory.
With ball in hand Scottish lacked their usual incisiveness, the running lines were too lateral and little use was made of the forwards running off the back of the ruck. Additionally, there were a number of handling errors which prevented Scottish from getting any meaningful momentum. However, the scrum did well with Max managing to hook a number against the head.
After a period of defence. Ethan cleared from inside the 22. Marcel chased the kick well and tackled the Barnet full back who was isolated; getting to his feet first he ripped out the ball and cantered in for this and the team’s second try which was converted. At half time it was 12-0.
In the second half it was an attritional battle neither teams making a lot of progress. Barnet enjoyed more possession and came close to scoring on a couple of occasions. Again the tackling and some scramble defence prevented the score. This half the penalty count was lower for Scottish.
Towards the end of the game Scottish managed to score twice more; first of all Konrad went over after four phases where the forwards picked and drove into the heart of the Barnet defence, well done to Jackson and Cameron for making the hard yards so that the try was able to be scored. The try was was converted.
Then in the final few minutes following from a penalty pivot move Carl took the ball over.
The team were happy to have won this encounter before next weekend’s match against Chess Valley. Chess Valley, London Scottish and Ampthill are all now vying to top the league and gain promotion. Very similar to last year when the same trio all got promoted from our previous league.
Result: LS 24 Barnet 0
