Congratulations to our U16 and U18 teams who have both progressed to the second round of the National Schools Cup with the U18s beating HS of Dundee 25-16 and U16s drawing 27-27 away against Glenalmond College and being awarded the win based on most tries scored.

A fantastic result for all the players and coaches involved! Looking forward to the next round.

Linlithgow U18 25 – 19 HS of Dundee

On Wednesday afternoon, with a 3 o’clock kick off on Mains Park, the U18’s took on HS of Dundee in the first round of fixtures in the Scottish Cup.

After a hard fought, close encounter, the home side came away with a victory of 25 – 19.

The Dundee boys looked dangerous from the start when their obvious game plan was to quick tap, and run everything, showing some great handling skills, everything wide, outside. However, mostly our boys managed to shut them down.

The scoring came early from Linlithgow’s with vice captain leading from the front, scoring from a 5 yard tap penalty showing great strength to go over the line. Fraser Converted for a 7-0 lead until right on half time, the Dundee boys broke out of their own half and scored a brilliant handling try, plus the kick. 7 – 7 at half time seemed fair.

Linlithgow started quickly in the second half with winger, Jack scoring after 2 minutes in, and again Fraser kicking. 14 – 7.

This definitely spurred Dundee on and they hit back quickly after 5 minutes but missed the conversion, and again crossing the try line after 12 minutes, plus the kick. 14 – 19 they took the lead.

Six minutes later, after some great phases of play, full back Rory stormed over the line to make it 19 – 19 with Fraser just missing the kick. With both teams frantically going for the win, the Linlithgow boys pressure was too much for Dundee and they gave away a penalty just outside the 22 and Fraser stepped up to kick the 3 points to take the lead 22 – 19 on 25 minutes. We continued to pressure and again Dundee folded at the end giving away a penalty on the last play, and again, Fraser slotted the last kick to secure the final winning score of 25 – 19.

A great game which genuinely could have gone either way but with closing pressure, the home side go forward to the next round.

Congratulations for a great squad effort from everyone.

Glenalmond College 27 – 27 Linlithgow U16

(Linlithgow victory based on tries scored)

On Wednesday the U16’s gathered at The Dolphin for their pre-match protein before travelling to scenic Perthshire in a small convoy of cars for their first round Scottish Schools Cup tie against Glenalmond in front of a sizeable partisan home crowd.

After a tight opening, the Reds won a penalty to earn themselves a lineout deep into the opposition 22. The Reds secured the ball from the throw and expertly set about forming a maul whilst the backs wondered what on earth had had happened to the ball whilst the forwards rumbled forward to score the first try of the game. Unfortunately, the tears of joy in the eyes of the coaches prevented them from being able to see who scored, so credit goes to the collective effort…

Glenalmond had a similar lineout in the Reds 22 and attempted to score through a maul, the Reds defended the maul really well and it looked like it was heading into touch before a Glenalmond player popped out of the maul with the ball to level the score at 5-5.

A period of close play followed, where neither side was able to control the game.  Glenalmond scored another try to head into the break with a 10-5 lead. Gleanalmond retreated to their pitch side bothy leaving the Reds to take in the view of the hills in the background at halftime.

The Reds scored the first points of the second half through a try from Cyrus to level the score at 10-10. This stirred Glenalmond into life who opted to kick a penalty and take the points rather than go for the corner underlying how seriously they were taking the challenge.

Glenalmond then had a period where they were on top in the game which resulted in a converted try to take the score to 20-10 and it looked at that stage like there was a real risk that the game might get away from the Reds, but they dug deep and refused to give up and the team got their reward when Rory crossed the line to bring the score back to 20-15.

The Reds took a lot of energy from this and had a period where they were in the ascendancy, Lewis crashed over in the corner after a strong carry and Rory added the extra points to take the score to 20-22. Buoyed by the fact that they had dragged themselves back into the game the Reds pressed on and got further reward when they were able to convert sustained pressure on the Glenalmond line into a try by Alex to take the score to 20-27.

However Glenalmond weren’t finished, spurred on potentially by a scoreboard that incorrectly recording the score as 22-27, and despite good defence from the Reds they were able to score a converted try with the last play of the game to give them what they thought was the win.

After the final whistle it was confirmed that the final score was 27-27 and that the Reds had won because they had scored more tries. As the scoreline suggests, it was a really tough competitive game between two evenly matched teams, but great credit must go to the Reds for travelling away from home and having the resolve to not let the game get away from them at the start of the second half and to come away with the win.