Under 13s Lose at Gordonstoun

Granite City Colts (GCC) v Gordonstoun (GST)

An early morning start saw the majority of the squad board the fun bus to Gordonstoun, a wake up game of bingo was well won by Joseph and following a wee sing song and a quick stop in Fochabers for a juice and cake we arrived in good time for the game.

Facilities are first class as you would expect at Gordonstoun and a warm welcome was extended by the hosts.

After a mandatory play on the swings on the way to the pitch our 13 warriors got their minds focused on the game and had a good prematch session.

Shortly after kickoff GST went ahead with a converted try, and then followed up with another this time unconverted. GCC had a lot of players playing in new positions and after the second try they seemed to click together, scrums were good, attack was well constructed with Ben injecting a lot of jinky pace into the back line, but our only try of the game came from forward power in the form of Andrew Bell driving over in a classic #8 type try unfortunately unconverted.

Coordinated defence was s struggle out wide and in the back 3, but the boys playing there did well considering they had to learn the positions on the pitch. They were impressive in the way they tried to link back up with the forwards and not get forced into touch when attacking.

GST scores another converted try before half time.

In the second half GCC stuck to the task very well and despite being on the unlucky side of some decisions kept challenging for possession and were not intimidated by the bigger and more numerous squad. GCC failed to score again and let in 2 more converted tries.
It was encouraging to see the lads mix up the attack strategy later in the game and show a bit of ingenuity, the hosts head boy said later that our pressure on the kicks caused them great problems and our scrum was AWESOME !!

Can’t fault anybody’s commitment today, everyone played as a team, for each other.
Thanks to Andrew Nespolo and Christian Aitken who both pulled on a shirt to allow us to field 13 players.

Man of the match was ... the Front row of Joseph, Finlay and Sam. For securing all the ball at the scrum and some great runs.
Runner up was Lewis, for the good kicks but more importantly the try saving tackles.
Thanks to our hosts, for a good game and excellent hospitality.

Final score- 3-19

A loss but not a bad one, and signs of a “team” coming together

Coaches
Graeme Buchan, James Bell

Report by Graeme Buchan