What a treat it was to play early George Heriot's on what was a glorious Saturday morning at Goldenacre! The boys had been looking forward to this for a while, given that Heriots were coached by Ewan who has been coaching cricket on Thursday evenings with me at Cargilfield for 17 years and there had been plenty of banter at nets last week from both sides, but as ever, it was important for us to do our talking on the pitch and after what had been a very positive team performance and convincing win against Belhaven on Wednesday, the boys were eager to keep improving and working on our patterns of play for when the crunch games of the season come after half term.

The first half saw us play some terrific attacking rugby, and Heriots never really got a look in.  Defensively, we were very aggressive, coming up quickly and tackling well, whilst our work at the breakdown was outstanding, turning over a lot of ball and rucking with real speed and aggression which allowed the three quarter line to play on the front foot.  Heriots were not a bad side, but we really blew them away with the speed we played at, moving the ball really well in to the wide channels, our support play was outstanding and we dominated the breakdown, as we usually do, which always provides quality possession for the backs.  We ran in 8 tries in total with Heriots scoring two well worked tries of their own, but the game was long gone, and Mr Stephen and I really enjoyed watching you play from the touchline, working hard as a team, playing really unselfishly and looking to play heads up rugby from wherever we were on the pitch.  Importantly, our decision making was excellent, and we made very few errors in the first half; we did not try to do too much, but looked after the ball very well and were patient, never trying to force things and pulled the opposition around the field until the space appeared.

A very good day at the office and one where we put another marker down as to how we want to play this season.  Well played indeed, boys; a terrific team performance.