Outstanding Win for Reds U18s against Currie
Linlithgow 48 – 5 Currie
Saturday 10 February 2024
Report by Gordon Muir
With an International match at Murrayfield on Saturday, the only rugby on show at Linlithgow was the intrepid Under 18s, who were eager to keep up the momentum after a couple of fine wins in recent weeks. With Musselburgh postponing their planned cup fixture, Currie stepped in at short notice and were good enough to travel to Linlithgow for an early kick-off.
The day dawned cold but dry and after a lot of overnight rain the pitch was soft but playable. Linlithgow and Currie have played a few times in the last couple of seasons at U16 and U18 and the matches tend to be tight, hard-fought encounters. Off the back of a good performance v Morrisons Academy last week, the Young Reds were anticipating a step up in physicality and would have to be at their abrasive best to win the battle around the breakdown.
The first few minutes from kick-off followed the expected script, as Currie ran hard and fairly straight until they were turned over by some excellent jackling and the Young Reds immediately got the ball wide and into space, where the visiting defence found themselves outnumbered and outgunned and, when the ball reached Rory M they had no answer to his speed and strength as he ran in a very good try, with Fraser adding the extras for a 7-0 lead.
The home side added to their lead 10 minutes later, with powerful running and great link-up play between the forwards gaining ground and compressing the Currie defence so that space opened up once again on the right flank and Reece had the pace to score in the corner. The tricky conversion sailed just wide but the Young Reds had stretched out a 12-0 lead early on. Currie weren’t to be denied entirely and got their score from a 5m line-out (with some “innovative” positioning) a few minutes later. The conversion fell short and it was 12-5. Reece scored his second of the morning late in the first half in a move started by the Reds U18s after they turned the ball over in their own 22. Two great link passes and Reece received the ball about 70 metres out. He ran round his opposite number, then slowed then accelerated to swerve outside the last line of defence, turning on the afterburners to complete a superb try. This took the score to 17-5 in favour of the Reds U18s at the turn.
After the Morrisons game, we’d asked the boys for more line speed in defence (which had been hit and miss last week, as the boys could see for themselves on the Veo video) and the response in this game was fantastic. The Young Reds produced an unrelenting defensive hustle to which Currie, despite being a big and physical set of lads, had no answer; then some really cool heads and brilliant execution in attack, with more pace out wide than Currie could cope with and enough power and patience to create those gaps. Great fun and extremely satisfying for the crowd (including assorted French visitors) to watch.
The second half continued in the same vein as the first, with Alfie, Jack M, Calum H all scoring tries and a penalty kick from Fraser, before Reece sealed the match with his hat-trick score as the last act of the game. The result was more emphatic than we had expected but the performance was really outstanding and should give great confidence to this group as we head into the last part of the season.