Mackie U15s Vrs Gordonstoun

Report on Mackie U15 game against Wanderer-Deeside, 30nd October 2016
Winter is upon us! So it seemed on a bitterly cold Saturday afternoon when Mackie U15’s visited Gordonstoun to play a return league fixture. The game was delayed due to a waterlogged pitch and moved to a windswept pitch that was also the location for the U14’s game. This meant a cold and frustrating wait for the U15 players until the U14 game was over. Kick off finally occurred at 2:10pm. If the players were cold and disgruntled it did not show as they tore into the Gordonstoun U15 team straight from kick off. Like the wind Mackie U15’s were relentless and gave Gordonstoun little room to play. They dominated every department of the game and, even though the match was cut short to 25 minutes halves, still came out comfortable winners, the final score 58-0. Mackie won the toss and played with the strong wind at their backs in the first half. A huge advantage on the sloping pitch. The first try was duly scored by Joseph Reid who sidestepped his way through a weak tackling Gordonstoun team with barely 2 minutes on the clock. Cameron Thain then scored on the blind side from a 5m ruck for try number 2. Findlay Rhind added try number 3 after slick Mackie handling had carved open the Gordonstoun defence. Cameron Thain then scored a second try from a forward surge after good play between forwards and backs. Oscar Burslem score an aggressive solo try after breaking through 3 tackles. The final try of the first half was scored by Logan Grant after taking an inside pass from Findlay Rhind and sprinting through a gap in the Gordonstoun defence to score from the half-way line. Three conversions from Logan Grant gave a healthy half-time score of 36-0. In the second half Mackie played uphill into the fierce wind. While it did check some of their thrusting play they still scored a further 4 tries from Murray Alan, Logan Grant, Mathew Buchanan and Logan Bean with one further conversion. An easy win but one completed in some style by a team whose movement, passing and recycling of the ball improves with each game.