Marr blow Hamilton away

Marr U18s travelled to Hamilton with a large squad for their first friendly of the season. All the players would get some game time over the three sessions to show if they had taken on board the coaching and style of play laid out by Gregor Ness and his coaching team during the pre-season.

Hamilton kicked off, the Marr forwards gathered, the backs moved the ball. The forwards then recycled the ball, went through a couple of phases before the ball was released again to the backs for right wing Ryan Brown to go over. Gregor Beckwith kicked the conversion. 7- 0 to Marr. From the restart Ethan Reilly caught the kick off and charged upfield. Quick recycling allowed the backs to move the ball again with winger Brown going over for his second. Beckwith was again successful to make the score 14 – 0 . Apart from kick offs the Hamilton players had yet to touch the ball.

Marr continued to doimnate this first period and after a number of phases it was the turn for left winger Evan Light to go over in the corner. Beckwith converted. 21- 0. Further controlled player allowed Brown to score again for his hat-trick to make it 26-0.

A crossfield kick put Evan Light away for his second try. Beckwith converted to make the score 33-0. The final score of the period was scored after ball stolen in a lineout was moved back quickly to the left and Ethan Reilly went over in the corner for an unconverted try making the score 38-0.

Major changes were made to allow game time for the whole squad. Marr statrted this period the way they had ended the first and after a number of phases close to the line Liam Morrison on his debut crashed over for a try which Beckwith converted. Reilly then went over for a further two scores with Beckwith successful with one conversion increasing Marr's led to 57-0.

One of Marr's best scores then followed when harassment by 'Eck McCormick at the scrum base allowed Smith to pick up and feed the backs. Quick hands and good passing put O'Leary into space and he went over in the corner to further extend Marr's lead to 62-0.

Marr then seemed to take their foot off the pedal and some sloppy defending allowed Hamilton one of their few forays in to the Marr '22. Hamilton eventually went over for an unconverted try to put their first points on the board .

The final period was a bit sloppy with various errors on both sides, possibly due to tiredness, team changes or lack of concentration. The only score went to Hamilton who scored a converted interception try to make the final score 62-12.

Some positives but a lot of work still to be done. Next up are two matches for the squad with one team playing Cartha. The other will be playing Ayr as a curtainraiser at 12 next weekend to the Seniors match. It would be good to see as many Marr supporters as possible come out and cheer on the 'purple and gold' stars of the future. The futures bright.