There was much anticipation around the 10B’s opening match of the rugby season. There was hardly a cloud in the sky and the walled garden at Merchiston was a fitting ground for the season’s opener. David captained the team on the day, taking the lead with a good warm-up prior to the minute silence in remembrance of HM The Queen.
The opening minutes were fast and furious with both sides making errors. With the raucous crowd, including “Chilly” the dog, encouraging the boys on, they soon found their rhythm with David asserting some control with his powerful running. There were great line breaks from Miguel, Max, David and Salman resulting in 2 early tries. The team had worked hard on their defence in the build up and we held firm until some dancing feet from Merchiston opened us up as the “Merchi” come back was on. Supported strongly by our bench; Finlay, Freddie and William we wrestled the momentum back. Focusing on our strong defence, we soaked up their pressure. Thereafter with good link up play we hit them on the counter stretching our lead to 4-2 by half time.
We maintained our defensive pressure, with Ethan and David especially strong, harassing Merchiston into mistakes and turnovers. On one such occasion the team moved the ball quickly across the line to Miguel who drew the last man perfectly before floating an exquisite pass to Stuart who dived in at the corner. Again, our rolling subs maintained the high standard with Seb, Freddie and Finlay all playing an important role. Despite our quality rugby we knew Merchiston would not give up and they scored two excellent tries themselves though more individualistic than the Cargilfield juggernaut. These tries, which were against the run of play did not dampen our spirit as the boys finished strongly extending their lead to 9-4 by the final whistle.
The match was played in a great spirit with hand shaking and 3 cheers at the end before a lovely joint team photo. Hugh thanks to Merchiston for being such wonderful hosts. Well done 10B’s!!
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