U10 Clifton Hall Rugby Festival

Won 4 matches, Drew 1

Having been blessed with dry Wednesdays up till now, steady rain greeted us upon our arrival at Clifton Hall and it didn't abate for the duration of the festival. Five matches lay in store: Clifton Hall, Loretto, Edinburgh Academy, Compass and Stewart's Melville. The boys had to adapt to the pitch bounds and rules in the first round against the home team but soon found their stride and eventually managed to outscore their opponents to start the afternoon with a win. In the next match, our defence was more organised and the boys trusted each other more to complete individual tackles, so by the third match they were fully up to speed for a good game against Edinburgh Academy, which they eventually managed to edge in a close scoring game. Tommy was outstanding in this match. The next match against Compass was their third match in a row with no break and the boys were slow to get going and soon found themselves 3-1 down. They didn't give up though and managed to pull themselves back into it to just a score behind, and then in the dying seconds of the match, they managed to secure a turnover, which they made the most of by scoring a try to draw the game. Arran made particularly good use of the touchline when defending, which played a crucial part in getting the team back into the match. The final match was against SMC and both sets of players had to fight fatigue to ensure the other team didn't have a free run of the pitch, which they did to give a good finish to the festival. Cargilfield managed to hang on to secure a narrow win. Archie's tackling stood out as he put constant pressure on the opposition. The most impressive part of the afternoon was the tackling effort put in by the whole team, which can probably be credited with their unbeaten run. Well done to all the boys who took part - whilst only a few names have been mentioned, the success of the team was dependent on a strong performance by everyone.