After last week’s very promising opening performance and win against Merchiston, we had spent time during the week working on our attacking shape to give us options with the ball and not be too predictable which will be important when we get in to the middle of the season and the tough games start to come thick and fast. Defensively, we were pretty solid last week, but improving our communication and keeping that defensive line always connected have been a key focus of the week.
What a glorious afternoon it was over at Fettes for our second game of the season. It was hot! We knew we would be stronger than them, so Jamie would only play ten minutes this week which would force us to work through more phases and work harder as a team to score. After a period of possession for Fettes at the start of the game, we scored the first time we had the ball, recycling it well at the breakdown and then releasing Monty away in to space to score an excellent opening try. Jamie scored three tries in his ten minutes, before being replaced by Edward at Number 8, and he very quickly made his mark with a fine try where he hit the line at pace from close range after some excellent work once again at the breakdown. Fettes never stopped trying though and they did score three tries during the game one from not picking up our man in the middle of the field, and then there was a bit of confusion following two kicks through. Overall though, our defence was excellent and well connected which bodes well going forwards.
However, we kept on threatening the Fettes line and it was great to see James S running some excellent lines at inside centre as well tackling anything that moved, Wilf provided a wonderful pass out to Oliver on the wing who dived over in the corner and Theo had lots of the ball too out on the other wing; Johnny continued his excellent work from last week, ferocious at the breakdown and jackling very well indeed. Miiguel sniped one or twice from the ruck and he also made some excellent off loads, Geordie and Hamish ran hard with the ball in hand, and also ran good support lines, whilst on debut, David enjoyed a good game up front, carrying well, and Lochy distributed the ball intelligently and also impressively drop kicked a number of conversions.
In the end, we scored a lot of tries, but what pleased me most was seeing how we reacted playing without Jamie for the majority of the game and the way we controlled possession, defended well and took our scoring opportunities, all of which bodes really well for the rest of the season. So lots of very encouraging signs, and our Monday contact session will provide everyone in the squad the opportunity to stake a place in the team, and it is good to see everyone striving to improve, to become better players and a better team. The work ethic is outstanding, boys, so keep this up.
Good to watch this afternoon, so well played, boys!
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