U16 Cup Final ends in Honourable Draw
Wednesday night saw the U16 and U18 Brewin-Dolphin Schools Cup Finals grace the International pitch at BT Murrayfield as, first up, Strathallan and Watsons played out an exciting drawn match in their final and they were then followed on by Watsons and Dollar in an equally, if not more so, exciting U18 Final.
From the off, Strathallan were right up in Watsons’ faces and early pressure lead to a turnover and attacking ball for the Perthshire team and they came within inches of scoring less than five minutes in, but the ball was lost over the Watsons’ line and the opportunity lost.
Now in possession, the Edinburgh side made progress upfield and pressurised the Strathallan defence, almost going through on a couple of occasions.
About 15 minutes in, one of these ‘occasions’ got the ball onto the line, but, as the officials were unsighted, play was resumed. Still in the opposition 22, Watsons continued to press and were rewarded a couple of minutes later when the pack drove over the try line, No 1, James Wilson, getting the score. The kick was missed, but 5-0 was the scoreline.
It could have been more as, with five minutes to play, full back, Thomas Urqhart finished off a fine move in the corner, but his effort was chalked off as the referee pulled play back for an infringement.
With half time at 35 minutes for the boys, the players went into the break with the score at 5-0 to Watsons.
Strathallan, once again, dominated the opening play of the half, but this time their possession lead to their try. A superbly crafted passing move deep in Watsons’ 22 was halted as a Watsons’ player got in the way of the final pass. However, the loose ball was gathered in by Sandy Aitken for Strathallan and he took advantage of a slight lull in Watsons’ defence, which he exploited to get the ball moving again. Another fine move by the Perthshire side then saw sub, Finlay Laird crash over in the left corner to put points on the board for his team. Again, the kick was missed so the score remained at 5-0.
The remaining 25 minutes of the game were played out in the same, frantic, fashion, with no little skill and endeavour in evidence, but, although both sides had their chances, the match finished 5-5 and, with Strathallan’s Will Goddard named Man-of-the-Match, the Cup was shared with both captains having half a hand on the trophy at the end.
Images from the match will appear here over the next few days.
