On a cold wet and windy October Sunday morning one can only applaud all the boys that took to the pitch, some of whom were visibly shivering at the start. The cold probably contributed to sleepiness in defence and GCC were a try down after 2 minutes which was unconverted. After a long tussle between the forwards captain for the day Andrew Bell had a good drive for the line followed up by Dylan Lennox driving low and hard for the eventual try. Lewis Gibbon had a worthy attempt at the conversion, but it fell just fell short of the bar. Just before half time Thomas Ewan was replaced by Angus Morrison due to an accidental head knock from which he appeared to fully recover.

After a wee re-shuffle due several complaints about being too cold to play. The second half got underway and a good rucking battle ensued by the forwards, with both teams displaying effective skills at presentation, bullet and clear-out. Mackie probably had the edge on the clear-outs but failed to capitalise on plentiful possession. GCC had a few decent attacking runs by individuals. But loss of the possession at the scrum, good counter rucking by Mackie combined with a few unlucky GCC kicks allowed Mackie lots of chances to run at GCC than anticipated. If GCC can manage to pass earlier to players running onto the ball into spaces, followed up by support play it will allow GCC to realise more opportunities to score. Speed of change of direction of the ball is key to opening defences. Not the player.
That said, tackling by both teams was excellent and handling was generally pretty good for the wet and chilly conditions.
Alex Carton was man of the match today for his good running angles in attack and selfless, excellent technique as the “bullet” at the rucks ensuring we retained possession out wide. In the forwards Archie Lyndsay kept the ball in two hands and looked for spaces to drive through in the forwards rather than just hitting what was in front – good play. The back three in the scrum also had a busy day with lots of excellent tackling against some big Mackie lads.

A draw was probably a fair result. Good effort by both teams. Final score- 3-3

Thanks to Fiona Duguid and the ladies for the (warm) sausage rolls, macaroni pies and juices after the game. Good effort.

Referee
James Bell

Coaches
Graeme Buchan, Liam Buchan, Scott Lennox, James Bell

Squad
Stewart Shearer, Brodie Duguid, Finlay Buchan, Calum Sherwood, Archie Lindsay, Angus Webb, Dylan Lennox, Adam Wright, Andrew Bell (C), Callum Thomson, Ihsan Rahman, Lewis Gibbons, Angus Morrison, Gregor Morrison, Thomas Ewan, Ben Masson, Alex Carton, Callum Nicol, Lewis Mclean.

Report by Graeme Buchan

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