Linlithgow RFC was the venue for week 2 and the Under 16 round robin involving the Edinburgh Eagles and Chargers and the visiting Stormers from Borders East.

The Eagles and Stormers kicked things off with both side struggling to string phases together due to the windy conditions. Both teams were making breaks but unable to convert into points. The Eagles started the 2nd period the stronger and after they worked the blindside with some good offloading Sam Pecquer raced 60 metres to open the scoring. The Borderers replied with two tries of their own either side of another Pecquer try to set up an exciting last 5 minutes with the scores at 14 – 10 in favour of the Eagles. The Stormers attacked hard and threw everything at the Eagles, some great scramble defence with some poor decision making in attack at crucial times left he score the same at the final whistle.

Next up the Chargers took on the Stormers which resulted in a convincing performance from the Stormers who ran in 6 tries to the Chargers 1. Offloading & direct running paved the way for some great tries for the Stormers. The Chargers tackling let them down but it wasn’t all doom and gloom as they showed good evidence of trying to lay the ball into the wide channels and created some good chance themselves when they started to put some phases together.

Last game of the day was the Eagles v Chargers.  This was a very competitive game that was in the balance all the way to the final whistle. A lyall Brown break was finished off by centre Mark Wilson to open the scoring for the Eagles before the Chargers replied with a try from a quick tap from a 5 metre penalty 5 – 5. Cody O’Neill finished off a clinical play to give the Chargers the lead going into the last 5 minutes after a catch and drive from a lineout. Calum Bradley had the last say however for the Eagles with a flowing movement and some nice handling from forwards Craig Wilson and Roy Stewart before Bradley scampered 30 metres to score in the corner. The conversion was missed in the difficult windy conditions to leave the scores locked at 10 – 10 when the final whistled sounded.

Thank you to Linlithgow RFC for hosting the game and also the Stormers for travelling up for the game. The coaches are pleased with the way that the players are progressing in the programme but all have agreed that the contact area need to improve – which will be the focus of this weeks practice.

The two Eagles and Chargers Under 15 teams both travelled down to Gala to play Berwickshire & Roxburgh respectively.
The Chargers had a hard fort game with 3 tries a piece at the end of the game. The Chargers played with some good shape and made space regularly in the outside channels with direct running and excellent passing and catching skills. Also some effective offloading and good team defence rounded off a good team performance. The Eagles were slow to get started but once they got into the game and got their game shape on the go they started to score some nice tries. In particular Kyle Kirkland and Graham Pedesen were standouts for the Eagles.

Thank you to Ian Miller and Gala RFC for hosting the games.

Over at Meadowmill East Lothian Falcons entertained The Borders West side at Under 16 level and Berwickshire at under 15 level.

In the under 15 fixture, the Falcons came out on top with some excellent running rugby, with  some excellent offloads and good fast contacts. The first half began at  slower pace with both teams struggling at contact time to generate fast ball, however once this had been sorted out by the coaches both squads were able to keep the ball for longer periods and were both unlucky not to score some early tries, however as the half wore on, the Falcons scored 2 tries.

The Falcons however were able to capitalize on the quick contacts and took advantage of this to dominate the second half to score 5 unanswered tries. Both sets of coaches can be happy with the performances of their teams having both shown improvements from the previous weeks games and although all key national themes were evident throughout the game there will be a huge emphasis on getting the contact right for next weekend.

In the under 16 fixture, both sets of players served up an exciting game with both teams scoring 3 good tries . The first half was a scrappy affair with both teams again struggling to generate quick contacts and thus found it difficult to break down each others organized defence, however when the teams did mange to get quick ball it allowed for some good running rugby with some clever offloads.

Next Games – Sunday 23rd August 2009
Eastern Eagles Under 15 v East Lothian Falcons Under 15
Eastern Eagles Under 16 v East Lothian Falcons Under 16
Both At Meggetland – 1pm KO’s

Western Chargers Under 15 v Borders Selkirkshire Under 15
Western Chargers Under 16 v Borders East & Borders West (Round Robin)
All at Gala RFC – KO’s 1pm.