First outing of the season

Fixture was a friendly, coaches on both sides agreed as it was first match after a long lay-off that it was to be treated as a development match and we would play 3 x 15 min periods. Rolling subs allowed to ensure everyone got enough game time.
Wands Lined up expectantly to receive the kick-off from Ellon as per AGLV rules, but Wands were taken by surprise as Ellon then took a quick tap and go and despite some good tackling passed the ball through the hands to score in the corner.
Wands didn’t seem to recover from this early shock and the first 15 min session finished with Ellon running in 4 x unanswered tries.
Wands then recovered their composure and improved their game in the following 2 x 15-minute sessions.
Some strong running from Finley Nicolson saw him dive over for what would have been the first try of the match for Wands, unfortunately he hadn’t actually reached the try line! However, Wands recycled the ball well and Aiden Jepp powered over for the team’s first score, converted by Campbell.
The teams were now much more competitively matched, Campbell broke free and using hand-offs to fend off tacklers ran in under the posts, then converting his own try.
Another try followed, scored by Samuel Wallis powerfully barging over a well defended line, Conversion kicked by Fergus.
4th Wands try was scored by Joshua, who had a long range run in to the corner pursued by the Ellon Defence, the difficult conversion successfully kicked by Fergus to maintain Wands 100% Kick record for the match.
Overall a very promising performance from a team not used to playing together and with a minimum of training. They did very well to battle back into contention and close the gap after a slow start.
Some excellent personal performances across the squad with strong individual running in attack and good tackling, and undoubtedly with more time together the team will develop to play more cohesively as a unit.