Saturday afternoon saw the Aberdeen Wanderers take on what is thought to be their biggest competition in the league, Dunfermline RFC. The home game kicked off at 3pm, and the boys knew they were going to have a very challenging 80 minutes of rugby.
The game began with an excellent kick into the defence from Marc Muir, who is sponsored by Alex Ferguson Building LTD. The ball would have landed just over the 10m line if it wasn’t for a great catch by winger Hugh Conlon, who allowed Wanderers to start the game with some excellent attack skills. Wanderers continued to demonstrate their excellent skills in attack until an accidental knock-on, which allowed Dunfermline to take possession of the ball after a scrum, although the forwards from Wanderers put up a good fight for it. Shortly after, Dunfermline were awarded a penalty after a no-arm tackle from Wanderers, and they were first to put numbers of the board with a score of 0 points to 3.

Wanderers continued to show off their outstanding skills in both attack and defence, and repeatedly displayed a very good performance in every scrum. After a knock-on by the Wands, it was Dunfermline’s turn to put the ball into the scrum. This scrum was dominated but the Wanderers’ forwards pack, and was won with a number eight pick up from Carwyn Walker, sponsored by Westhill Choi Kwang-Do. Unfortunately, soon after Wands gave away another penalty right under the posts, allowing Dunfermline to further lead with a score of 0-6. At this point, it looked like it could still be anybody’s game, but Dunfermline saw a gap in Wanderers’ defence and scored a try in the final play of the first half.

The second half began with a score of 0-13. Although this score did not reflect the game being played, Wanderers knew that they would have to pull it together to be in with a chance of going home with a win. The boys used this half to put into play what they had been practising at training over the past few weeks. From excellent examples of set pieces to presentations of outstanding skills in the ruck, the boys really held up their side. This half of the game really could have gone either way, however no points were scored from either side and the score remained at 0-13 as the final phase came to a close.

Head coach Russell Arthur congratulates his players: “It was a really physical game that we managed to take control of for long periods. We need to work on getting more width on the ball and if we do that then I’m sure we’re going to cause serious problems for many teams in this league.”

Vice-Captain Carwyn Walker, sponsored by Westhill Choi Kwang-Do, is pleased with the game played by himself and his teammates: “I think everyone put out a strong performance, although our discipline wasn’t great at times. The boys put in a tremendous effort and at the end of the day everyone did their best, and for that reason I’m very proud of us all.”

Wanderers’ Man of the Match was awarded to Arif Muhammed for putting in many strong hits throughout the full 80 minutes. Sadly, it is his last game for Aberdeen Wanderers RFC as he heads to University next week, which will be a very sad loss to the club.