Mackie received the kick and immediately put Gordonstoun under pressure, with the back row taking control Drew Christie made a trade mark run at the opposition defence only to be tackled and knock the ball on. It didn’t take long for Drew to correct the mistake as the ball came loose at the base of the Gordonstoun scrum and he was on it in a flash and ran through to score the first try the conversion was missed by Robbie Crighton.
Mackie received the ball from the re start and started working it down the field going through the phases. The backs ran a training ground move which saw Eoin Vaughan break into the attacking line from fullback and offload the ball to Aidan Smith on the wing who ran in for the second try the conversion was missed by Robbie.
Mackie took control of the game with the back row of Liam Dreelan Drew Christie and Fraser Lindsay bossing the break down. It was good to see the ball retention , as that was the focus from the previous weeks training. The inter play between the forwards and backs was good with both Findlay’s showing what an excellent half back pairing they are evolving into. Mackie were probing and looking for an opening with every touch of the ball , but it looked like they were trying too hard as the clinical last pass just wasn’t sticking, and we were also giving away a number of penalty’s which broke the momentum being established. After a sustained period of pressure Mackie won a scrum against the head and the ball was passed out to the backs and then recycled at the break down Liam Dreelan made a break for the line and scored the conversion was missed by Robbie .
Gordonstoun were putting up a good fight in the middle of the pitch and made inroads into the Mackie 22 and put the Mackie lads under pressure yards from the try line, Mackie defence stood firm and their lines were cleared just on the stroke of half time.
A few changes were made at half time and with a welcome return from injury to Max Nehring who got stuck in right from the start, Also making his League debt was Ciaran Fern who made an immediate impact with a couple of direct runs which set up Euan Robertson for the first score of the second half try converted by Robbie.
The second half followed on a similar vein as the first with the back row smashing their way through the opposition. The rucking of all the forwards was much improved from the previous games with Dominic-Nathan and the rest of the front five putting in a very hard shift . The line out was functioning well with Levi winning his own ball and the majority of the Gordonstoun ball , he is becoming a real force to be reckoned with at the line out.
The next try came from good ball retention and working through the phases Gordonstoun had won a line out and cleared there lines by kicking the ball from the 22 the ball was fielded by Aiden who ran it back and offloaded to Ethan Thomas who made a good angled run to score , the try was converted by Robbie.
Callum McKenzie made his league debt on the wing and equated himself well. Mackie kept sustained the pressure on Gordonstoun and were committed to keep a clean sheet, the ball was being worked through the hands and direct running in attack .Even well into the second half the aggression was still evident on the players faces , the next score came from phase play between forwards and backs , with Fin Sweetnam running a good line and carved a path up to the 22 and offloaded to Ciaran who charged through the opposition to be tackled short of the line, the ball was recycled and passed to Nathan who was on a charge and when Nathan is on the hoof he is dam near impossible to stop, he scored under the posts this was the last try of the game the conversion made by Robbie.
All in all it was a good win with the boys taking on board what is discussed and worked through at training, There is still a few things to work on like the final pass , and body position in the scrum.