U18s ready for national stage

Apr 22 2009 by Our Correspondent, Stirling Observer Wednesday

FIVE of Stirling County’s under-18s are just back from international duty in Italy in time for this Saturday’s National Youth Cup Final.

They are Robbie Boswell, Glen Bryce, Stuart Edwards, Danny Gilmour and Sean Kennedy.

In their absence last Saturday, the incentive of winning a place at Murrayfield meant it was an eager group of players that travelled to Burnbrae to meet West of Scotland in a friendly.

West had progressed to the semi-final stage of the National Cup and had fallen to County’s cup final opponents Currie. So this was anticipated as a benchmarking exercise in preparation for the final.

The opening contacts saw West looking strong up front and, within two minutes, they had taken advantage of a County handling error to drive over in the corner for the opening score.

County responded immediately and a good break by centre Robbie Hogg levelled the score and his own conversion took County ahead.

County settled and as the ball was won in contact some fine handling saw Jamie Anderson use his acceleration from full-back to outpace a despairing defence. Further scores from Hogg and scrum-half Andy Parker extended the lead to 26-5 within 20 minutes.

The key feature of the County play had been an attractive balance of pace and handling which saw off-loads in contact combined with good width in attack create numerous gaps in the West defence.

These were exploited by some fine angled running by the backline. Momentum was maintained, despite a number of replacements and, as half-time was reached, the lead had been extended to 43–5 with further scores by centre Mark Marchbank , Hogg completing his hat-trick, and Euan Laverty.

It was more of the same at the start of the second period as Grant Smith drove over to score with his first touch of the ball. However, West gave a reminder that defensive concentration is also an important part of the game as they took advantage as sloppy play near the line to cost County a try.

County re-grouped and quickly re-gained the initiative and ran in further scores by Kyle Dalziel, Grant Smith, David Dick and Jake Yuill-Kirkwood supported by five conversions from Hogg and three by Fynn Russell, which was only interrupted by a consolation score by West near the end for the match to finish 78-17.

Although this appears to have been a meaningless fixture against weak opposition, it was not only the score that was impressive but the quality of the County play that caught the eye.

County now re-group this week and focus on the final against Currie on Saturday. As current cup holders, the test will now be how they handle the assigned tag of favourites against a Currie side who will be making history on their first appearance in the National Youth Cup Final.

They will bring a large and vociferous support to the National Stadium and County will hope to add to the atmosphere with a large travelling support from Bridgehaugh following the sevens tournament on Saturday.

The match starts at 7.30pm at Murrayfield . A bus for supporters will travel from Bridgehaugh from 6pm and those interested in using this means of transport should contact the club directly for details.