Marr College S2 Vs Balfron Strathendrick S2 Match Report

By Stuart Macdonald / Marr Specialist Coach

Having not played Balfron / Strathendrick before they were a bit of an unknown quantity. From observing them during the warm up they looked like a big strong team so we would need to be on top of our game.

Straight from the kick off we looked serious about applying pressure when Balfron were in possession and this resulted in a loose clearance kick being being collected by Dan who ghosted around the outside for the first score. Balfron then went on the attack with a series of drives down the blind side which ended with a penalty just short of our line. They set-up with their big prop as the obvious runner but used him as a decoy and moved the ball wide and over our line. Balfron then had a period of sustained possession and when they kept the ball in the forwards they were able to make progress up the pitch. Pressure from our defence payed off and we were able to capitalise on their handling error to collect the ball and go round the outside with pace to score. We scored twice more before finishing the first half with a score from a well worked lineout move. Score at halftime 18-4.

Balfron’s forwards came out for the second half with an added determination to retain possession but we were in no mood to allow this to happen with some ferocious tackling and counter rucking saw us retain the bulk of the possession in the second half. To their credit Balfron stuck in, kept their heads high and played to the final whistle but they just had no answer to the pace of our strike runners who seemed to be able to score at will and we scored 5 times in the second half with no reply.

In summary the score did not reflect the amount of effort the Balfron forwards put into the game. The difference between the teams was our relentless pressure and our ability to be clinical with ball in hand.

Marr Man of the Match Sam Moore