Our opening two fixtures of the season had been very contrasting affairs with a hard fought win against Merchston followed by a much more comfortable game against Fettes, but we had gained a lot from both matches, and it was good to see boys being adaptable, playing in different positions and looking to put in to place our attacking and defensive structures. Our Monday afternoon contact session has provided a real opportunity for everyone to compete for a place in the team, and indeed, boys have been promoted to the team on the back of their performances in this session, and it is clear that we have an expanding pool of players who have the ability to play at this level, and competition for places can only be a good thing for the success of this season’s 1stXV and for the development of the boys’ rugby experience.

We knew Belhaven would provide a much sterner test which is just what we needed, and with them having beaten Strathallan and Dollar quite comfortably in the past two weeks, our friends from Dunbar arrived in confident mood on what was another gloriously sunny early Autumn afternoon.

We decided to shuffle things round a little, as it is important at this level to be adaptable, and to experience a variety of positions to add to players’ rugby experience (funnily enough, I was never asked to play scrum half when I was at Prep School!) and Jamie M came in to scrum half, with Miguel moving in to the centres, and Monty moving to full back. We won the toss again and chose to play with the slight slope in our favour, and after receiving the kick off cleanly, we kept the ball for two or three minutes, passing the ball nicely and showing our usual efficiency at the breakdown before Jamie went blind from a close range ruck to score the opening try. Our first entry in to the ‘red zone’ resulting in a try. However, Belhaven responded pretty well, showing plenty of skill and pace with the ball in hand and having broken a couple of tackled on the touchline, they dived over in the corner for a well deserved score. Game on then.

Although we dominated possession for the rest of the half, we just lacked a little bit of composure when we got close to the line, although top be fair to Belhaven they did defend well and the breakdown was fiercely contested all afternoon with both teams effecting turnovers at crucial moments. However, we did manage to score a second try with Wilf diving over from close range after some excellent recycling by the forwards: he carried very strongly all game, driving up the side of the rucks with a really good body position. We had other opportunities but our decision making was not good enough as we went blind and went in to touch, or else did not commit enough numbers to the ruck and so got turnover when we should have scored. Better communication needed to get these things right because with just one score in it, the game was far from over.

So we were only 14-5 up at half time and had not made the most of playing slightly downhill, and given Belhaven’s good handling and strong running, we would need to be a little more precise to make the most of our domination of possession, but also be alert to the undoubted attacking threat of Belhaven.

The first ten minutes of the 2^nd half saw us really hit our straps and we scored four unanswered tries in that time which put the game to bed to be honest. I was delighted with the aggression we maintained at the breakdown (led by Johnny who never stopped tackling, jackling, hitting rucks and being a general nuisance to the opposition!), but this time we flooded the rucks a bit more, which resulted in quicker ball, and the Belhaven defenders were then going backwards and disorganised which allowed us to exploit the space. As a result Jamie scored two tries and Monty also ran in two excellent tries from distance which he converted putting us 49-10 up and that was that. Credit to the whole team for upping their game at the start of the 2^nd half and Belhaven had no answer. It was great to see Monty exploiting the space with his speed, Hamish got his hands on ball at the breakdown on countless occasions whilst Miguel and Lochy played with great assurance at half back.

We then changed six players, as the 2^nd team game had finished, and this allowed more boys to play at this level which was terrific to see and all of them acquitted themselves well. Belhaven scored two late tries, but the final whistle blew – thank you to Mr Pounder from Glenalmond for refereeing – and it was time to shake hands.

So three out of three and the season has started very positively. We are a relatively inexperienced side with only four boys in their final year in the starting XV, so the U12 boys really have learned such a lot over the past month and have coped well with new laws, more players on the pitch and much more structure. Every match we have made changes to personnel due to the hugely competitive weekly Monday contact session, and this has kept everyone on their toes and keen to impress. We have so much more to come as we grow more familiar with our attacking shape, and defensively we are extremely effective and it is good to see everyone knowing what their roles are both with and without the ball. Keep working hard and keep looking to improve, boys, as the challenges will increase starting next week with a trip down to the borders to play St Mary’s.

But a good win today, a fine team effort, and I cannot wait until next week!