Young Rams play well against Perthshire

Dec 6 2012 by Clare Damodaran, Blairgowrie Advertiser

Blairgowrie Rams P4/5 team met their Perthshire counterparts at home last month, just two weeks after experiencing an 8-5 away defeat to the Perthshire side.

There was a good turnout from both sides, with each fielding two teams in the age group. In the first game, the Rams were taken by surprise a little by a quick-off-the-mark Perthshire side making a run right from the whistle and scoring the first try.

The Rams were quick to respond however, with a great try from Nadia Stewart. Perthshire ran in a try and Finlay McCoshim was next on the score sheet for the Rams with Dylan Skibinski making it over the line to secure a point as well.

In an evenly matched game, each team seemed to respond to a try by their opponents, with Nadia Stewart’s second try of the game right at half time making the score 5-6.

The second half of the match saw some great team work from the Rams and good tackling from Perthshire. Archie Thomson ran over a hard-fought try for the Rams, which Perthshire quickly followed with another try of their own. Nadia scored her hat-trick and then following a good push by Aaron Crighton, Archie got another point.

Finlay McCoshim also scored his second try of the match, and following a great tackle by Matthew Duncan, Dylan neatly collected to also score a second try.

In an almost copycat move, Matthew almost scored for the home side but was brought down at the last moment by Perthshire, who then collected the ball and ran in a try of their own. Final score was a very credible 12-12.

There was no rest for the teams as they went straight in to their second matches. This was a 10-a-side game, which meant there were no substitutions for the young team.

Good defensive work by the Rams, in particular from Dylan, kept Perthshire from scoring for much of the first half and it was a hard fought first try that the away side eventually scored. Matthew was first on the scoresheet for the Rams but at half time the scoreline was 1-2.

There was more good tackling from the Rams in the second half, and despite a good run by Paul Damodaran, Perthshire were first to score again.

Nadia scored again before the Rams, looking increasingly tired, conceded another try, to make the final score, 2-4.

On the other side of the pitch, the other P4/5 team also made the two Perthshire teams work for their points. In the first game it was Perthshire who scored the first few tries although the Rams played well and tackled hard.

Aidan McKelvie scored the first try for Blairgowrie after a strong run but despite this and a further two tries from Elian Perez they still lost to the ultimately stronger side. The final score was 3-9.

In the second of the team’s two games, Blairgowrie seemed spurred on by earlier defeat.

A fired up team ran in four tries and were unlucky to be beaten by the other Perthshire team.

Elian scored his third try of the day, and the Bowen brothers Shane and Ryan also put in a notable performance.

The team’s fine performance was not reflected in the final score: 4-8.