What a Grind

What a difference having 4 weeks off from playing rugby.
The boys seemed well up for the game against Perthshire today . But as the game started it was well apparent that Perth were also up for the challenge.
Mackie started off competing well at the kick-off . And started the first attack Perth gave away a penalty and Mackie kicked for touch. The line out was won comfortably by Levi Peddie ,the ball was passed out along the back line, Eoin Vaughan run a great angle from full back and made some good yardage, the ball was passed inside to Robbie Crighton who took on the defence and was tackled, the ball was recycled by the forwards and Liam Dreelan scored the first try in the corner. The conversion was missed by Robbie.
The restart was won by Mackie after the ball having passed through the legs of Dominic and Drew, Finlay Sweetnam called a backs move and unfortunately the ball was dropped at the wrong moment as all the backs were committed to the attack, the ball was hacked forward twice by a Perthshire player who just managed to touch it down as Ethan Thomas almost made a try saving tackle, great effort by Ethan. The try was converted by Perth. Mackie won the restart and went onto the attack by Perth were putting up a formidable defence just in front of the try line , at one point Mackie had a two man overlap but never used it and cut inside and the attack was stopped. Luckily the ball was knocked on by Perth and a scrum was awarded to Mackie the ball was won .there was a couple of probing attacks from the forwards which gained little ground, the point of contact was shifted and Liam scored his 2nd try. The game settled down with most of the work getting done in the middle of the pitch, Mackies front five forwards were posted missing at most of the rucks, which made the break down a lot harder than it should have been , I think the boys were a bit rusty from not having a game for 4 weeks. There were moments when the back row forwards were making breaks but they were isolated as the support was just that 2 or 3 seconds behind them , and Perth were competing very hard at the break down this was the pattern for the rest of the first half.
The forwards got the hairdryer treatment at half time from the coaches ,which seemed to do the trick , from the re start Fergus Inglis got the bit between his teeth and drove up the middle of the pitch and was determined that he wasn’t going to be tackled unfortunately he was and the ball was shipped out to the wing quickly and Aidan Smith scored in the corner the conversion was missed.
Perth re started and the ball was taken on and passed out to Eoin who took it at pace and weaved his way through the defence to score under the posts. Try was converted by Robbie.
Perth re started and after a few exchanges in the middle of the pitch the ball was passed out to the left wing were Robbie and Liam tried to break through the Perth defence the ball went into touch , line out for Perth which was won by Mackie the ball was passed to Fin J who passed it to Drew who ran through to score under the posts try converted by Robbie. The last Mackie try came from Eoin who latched onto a pass from Harry Grant and ran a wide arching line to score.
This seemed to gee up the opposition as the remainder of the game was played in the Mackie half with wave after wave of attack coming and being repelled, the forwards seemed to lose a bit of their shape again but they hung in there at the end.
A lot of work needs to be done at training regarding the break down. and game management , but it’s been 4 weeks since our last game and they all looked a bit rusty. To end on a positive the set play area for Mackie was good we dominated the Lineout and the scrum .It’s not a bad thing to win ugly but a win is a win and well done to all who played as it was a hard game.