The local Pathway programme matches have come to an end for another season with a successful and entertaining afternoon at the lovely pitches at Lasswade RFC.

The two Edinburgh Under 15 teams kicked off on the top pitch. Both teams showed good evidence of the core key themes that they had been working so hard on. The offloading and quick contacts from both teams enabled the attack to get in behind the defences and good hand catching and passing skills put the ball into the wide channels to cross the try line a number of times. The coaches have done well to develop all of the players during the year and look forward to picking up where they have left off in the next sessions in October.

Falcons holt Edinburgh Charge
The Under 16 Chargers saved their best team performance till last, as a number of key individuals raised their game against the strong East Lothian Falcons team. The home team were using their superior lineout skills to good effect, both of the first two tries came from penalties kicked to touch. Firstly, Cody O’Neill and then Jake Tritton smashed over in between an intercept try to an East Lothian centre. The quick contacts and the ability to hold onto the ball was helping the Chargers. Dougie McRae was next on the score sheet after an excellent offload again from Tritton, before Tritton added his second from a quick tap from the 5 metre line. East Lothian were always in the hunt and kept close on the heels of the Chargers moving the ball well to the outside channels and threatening at every opportunity. Calum Dickson was quickest to react when after a fly kick out of the Chargers 22 the ball was moved to him where he saw the space and ran 30 metres to make the score 26 – 14 at half time.
East Lothian came out the blocks strong in the 2nd half as they introduced their subs. Srong carries, offloads in behind and quick contacts paved the way for 2nd half tries to Ruaridh Young, Calum Dickson, Murray West and Ronnie Spinks. The Chargers also performed well in the second half and can certainly be proud of their last game together as the programme now moves into integration with the 7 independent schools in the area.

The Under 16 eagles travelled to Earlston RFC to play their round robin against the two borders sides. 7 – 43 and 7 – 12 defeat on both occasions against well drilled Borders sides. The heads never went down and the Eagles played to the final whistle with a number of players putting their hand up to move into consideration for regional selection.

Thank you to all of the players for their efforts over their time in the local Pathway. I am sure all will agree that every player has developed their core skills to take back and continue to work on in their club / school environment. The players will all receive a ‘Player Report’ in the next few weeks from the coaches, highlighting areas of strength and areas to develop. Thank you also to the volunteer coaches & officials for their endless work over the piece. Lastly thank you to the supporters and club coaches for their support for the Pathways Programme