Although the Stirling pitches were rain sodden it didn’t dampen the spirits of the players and the standard of rugby did not suffer, especially when the sun came out.

Mackie P5’s were in pool A of a two pool tournament and their first game was against a strong running Biggar side. The lead was exchanged several times in an exciting and well balanced game before the Mackie boys pulled away to a 7 tries to 3 win.

Next up was Stewarts Melville and again the standard of play was high but all of the Mackie team showed superior handling, tackling and rucking technique such that won easily 8 tries to 2.

After a quick turnaround the team faced a strong Howe of Fife team that they had struggled to beat the previous year and although they were a well drilled outfit they could not cope with the Mackie passing and off-loading game that was at its best in this match. Numerous tries were of real quality with several players handling the ball at pace before the score was made. One aspect that improved throughout the tournament was the rucking and in particular the counter rucking which won several turn over’s for Mackie in the game. Final score Mackie 7 Howe 4.

The final game of the pool stage was against the much fancied Stirling County who had also won all their games at this point, so it would be the winner who went through to the final. A game of high calibre rugby resulted where very few tackles were missed and the ones that did included some full on big hits from the likes of Edgar, Burgoyne, Gilchrist, and Harrison-Lewis. Free running from both sides meant it was a tight game but a determined Mackie team shaded it with a 4 tries to 3 victory, much to the delight of the boys and ardent supporters!

The final was against another Stirling team who seemed to be the fresher of the two finalists having come though a marginally easier pool. The final score of Stirling County 5 Mackie nil did not reflect the possession, territory Mackie had nor the effort that the team put in but Stirling were the stronger on the break and made Mackie pay for some loose passing and tired tackles.

All of the players did extremely well throughout the tournament and should be very proud that they more than held their own on the same stage as some of the best teams in Scotland. However one boy has even more reason to be happy with his performance and attitude throughout the day. This tournament was an HSBC sponsored event in preparation for the British & Irish Lions summer tour to Australia and part of it was for one player of the tournament per age group to be selected to train with the Lions in Wales prior to their departure. Jacob Burgoyne from the Mackie P5 squad was selected by the judges as that player, so congratulations to him and enjoy the experience Jacob!

Squad: Jacob Burgoyne, Rikki Gilchrist, Jonathan Edgar, Finlay Wynne, Owen Harrison-Lewis, Iain Burt, Duncan MacEachern, Andrew Davidson, Leonard Holmes, Rhys Innes,