Linlithgow  59 – 25  Morrisons Academy

Saturday 03 February 2024

Report by Gordon Muir

Linlithgow Under 18s welcomed Morrisons Academy to Mains Park for a friendly fixture on Saturday, with minds set on revenge for an uncharacteristic skelping handed out by the Crieff outfit at their place earlier in the season. The pitch was in good shape, the weather cool and dry with an insistent wind blowing up towards the clubhouse end. 

The Young Reds team were focused in their warm up and looked sharp and ready to go as they kicked off to the visitors, chased hard and quickly turned the ball over to launch a probing attack up the left wing. Encouraging stuff. 

Morrisons brought energy and physicality of their own and the opening minutes of the match were tightly fought, with play going back and forth albeit within the visitors’ half.  The first scrum of the game saw the Reds pack impose themselves and win a penalty. The ensuing long kick, caught by the wind, failed to find its touch but was brilliantly chased by Calum H, who won another penalty from the covering defender. This one was nudged safely into touch and the line-out + maul drew in the defence and set the platform for the opening score as centre Rory M hit a great line onto a short ball and ran powerfully to cross the whitewash – with half of Crieff hanging off him.  Alfie nailed the conversion and it was 7-0 to Linlithgow. 

Morrisons came back into the match and showed intent to run with the ball but sturdy defending kept them at bay and it was the Young Reds who scored next: a brilliant strike, starting at a scrum on their own 22, with strong running, great decision-making and accurate hands through the midfield to release Calum H on the left wing. He fired up his jet boots and raced away to score a thrilling try. 

The hosts were in again, few minutes later, this time a strike move from an attacking scrum opened a gap which stand-off Alfie darted through to touch down between the posts. The next score came from the same player. Scrum-half Oogie was doing valuable and necessary work shoring up a ruck, so Alfie as next man in picked the ball up, stepped the looming defender and sprinted in untouched from 40m. 

With 30 minutes of the first half played, Linlithgow fans may have been thinking of a whitewash, but Morrisons had a bit more about them than the 28-0 scoreline suggested. They had proven themselves able to make yards at any point that the Young Reds defensive intensity and line speed dropped, albeit without troubling the score this far.  That changed after a period of pressing close to the Linlithgow line, when the visitors finally got across from close range. The conversion was missed. 

The game was handled by a young referee, who was under observation from the sidelines and it is great to see young people developing in this vital role. He handled the game fairly and communicated well with the boys but unfortunately his watch wasn’t working, which meant for an extra-long first half – enough time, in fact, for Linlithgow to add two more scores:  through Rory M once again, this time winning a foot-race with fellow centre Jack M, chasing the latter’s great hack-through kick; and Alfie, running a good support line to collect a perfectly timed offload from Oogie and crash over to score. 

The half-time score was 40-5 but the game never felt quite that one-sided. 

The second half retained the physicality of the first in attack but the game opened up and perhaps the defensive intensity dropped a bit. 

Linlithgow opened the scoring through Rory M, a magnificent mazy run from his own half that left defenders trailing in his wake. Morrisons, not to be outdone, showed that a powerful runner in broken field can because hard to stop as their number 8 evaded all attempts at capture to run in from long range. 

Morrisons scored next again and, while not quite the most remarkable and nail-biting comeback in a rugby match that most of us watched on Saturday, certainly put the Young Reds under pressure.  The visitors added another try to make things uncomfortable and a bit frustrating for Linlithgow, who played some nice stuff themselves and could have stretched further ahead but for a couple of lapses of composure.  

Rory M added one more try to his tally, this one chasing an attacking kick that bounced up perfectly for him to sprint in from distance which, after a final say from Morrisons, led to a full time score of 59-25. Revenge gained for the boys from that early season loss and a good game from all the team, with – that coaches’ favourite – plenty to work on before the next match.