St Columba's S1 vs Marr College/Prestwick Academy S1

Marr College/Prestwick Academy S1s travelled to Kilmacolm to take on St Columba’s for their 3rd match of the season and more hopeful after the win over Lomond 2 weeks previously. Unfortunately early hopes evaporated when after only 10 minutes we found ourselves 11-0 down and the coaches thinking how high it might go with another 30 minutes still to play ! Annoyingly, St Columba’s scores, while well worked, often started from Marr coughing-up the ball too easily with a series of dropped passes.

Fortunately, after the torrid start, the team knuckled down and improved with the result that the remaining 30 minutes saw each team get 1 try apiece (Cameron Paterson getting the Marr try) and the match finished 14-3 to St Columba’s. Afterwards the boys were told to keep their heads up: of our squad of 18, 6 are brand new or relatively new to rugby and we have great scope for improvement as they are barely over 1 month into playing rugby; also, if they look at the results of the other years, we are performing no worse and often better than the other teams. Positives were the scrum which has become sold very quickly and rucking and counter-rucking once engaged. Negatives were the number of dropped, simple passes, a failure to protect the ball when laid back after a tackle and the back line needing to keep its width and avoiding crowding in on the ball.

Next week against Kelvinside will be just as tough but we are moving in the right direction.