Our Marr College Youth squads kicked off their competitive Conference season on Saturday morning against St Columba's School and Robert Burns Academy.

Our Youth programme has developed to a point where we are now fielding A & B sides at all of our age groups except for S2. This has meant that we have entered two Schools Conferences, West Schools A & West Schools B.

We fielded 163 boys from P6-U18 which is an absolutely fantastic number involved in Rugby on a Saturday morning!
U18 A v St Columba's

Marr 1st XV started their season with a new formatted West A Schools Conference game at home to St Columbas on a prefect morning for Rugby, as was to be expected the start of the game was a cagey affair with both teams eager to get up and running and although the game was pretty even it was mostly played in the St Columbas half, Marr playing well with the ball and not letting the opposition settle in defence, Ruari Anderson opened the scoring after some great play with the ball in hand switching play across the pitch to create the opening on 13 mins out on the Marr right, it didn’t take as long for the second try to come with a great piece of work by Jamie Braddock to work himself over for Marr’s second.

St Columbas kept at it and with some hard running ran in close to the post which was converted to get them back within three points. Marr kept with their game plan and ran in three more tries before half time the pick of the bunch a great solo effort by Bruce Abbot, when he chased down his own kick and with a prefect pick up left the defence in the dust behind him. HT 29-7.

In the second half Marr stepped up a gear and with dominant tackles from Zach Kelly and Ruari Anderson all over the park ensuring St Columbas couldn’t do anything when they had the ball and the team working better as a whole Marr ran in three further tries all converted by Ally Campbell, it was pleasing for the coaches to see the lads come together and sort things as a group finishing the game on a high. For his tireless work in getting the ball moving and Marr on the front foot, his strong defence and scoring 3 tries Ruari Anderson was named Man of the Match. FT Marr 50-7 St Columbas

Scorers;
Try – Ruari Anderson *3
Jamie Braddock *2
Bruce Abbot
Ross Booth
Sam Christian

Cons;
Ally Campbell *5

U18 B v Robert Burns Academy

Marr Tries: Angus MacCallum (2), Jack Sharman
Conversions: Keir Anderson (2)

MOM: Good performances from Keir Anderson, Dylan Stevenson but MOM to Angus MacCallum for his strong carries and scoring a couple of tries.

Saturday 2nd September saw Marr play Robert Burns Academy at the Marr College playing fields in dry, warm and still conditions perfect for running rugby. It was Robert Burns who kicked off with a long and low kick deep into the Marr 22 where Marr failed to deal with the threat and were turned over. This set up a period of defence within 5 metres of the try line. Marr managed to repel a series of pick and go's but eventually were breached to allow Robert Burns to open the scoring.

Robert Burns were to add to their advantage through a series of strong carries from their forwards who managed to make significant progress up the pitch as tackles were insufficiently low to bring them down, allowing metres to be made and sucking in defenders. This enabled the ball to be recycled and again letting Robert Burns in for another 5 points. By this point it was beginning to feel that it was going to be a long day, however Marr started to pull together and getting over their shaky start began putting some phases of play together allowing progress to be made up the pitch, culminating in Angus MacCallum going over for the try. the rest of the half continued to be a bit of an arm wrestle with neither side making much progress until Robert Burns got the break to score.

Marr started the second half in a far more controlling fashion than they started the first with some good phase play and recycling the ball with first Angus MacCallum and Jack Sharman driving over to score. Keir Anderson adding the extras. Much of the half saw Marr in the Robert Burns 22 with the visiting side putting in a good defensive shift to prevent Marr from adding to their tally. As the game wore on a series of injuries to Marr players resulted in players having to adjust to unfamiliar positions with special mention to Jamie Tuton for filling in at centre and Ryan Cambridge covering full back.

The last score of the game went to the visiting team benefiting from a breakaway try to score.

A good outing for the first game of the league season where we unfortunately came up a bit short and incurred a couple of injuries which will hopefully not keep Adam Murray, Owen Hall and Callum Cairns out for too long, but there was plenty of positives and a good foundation for the matches in the weeks ahead.

U16 A v St Columba's

The 16s squad made the windy journey to Kilmacolm to take on a strong St Columba's side.  It was a dewy morning which made for some tricky handling conditions early on and for the first 25 mins both defences were on top. That was until Lyle Hill snaffled a St Columba's lineout just inside his own half and went on a barnstorming run across the field which saw him tackled by the winger on the opposite side of the field, from that ruck Marr recycled the ball and moved it infield to Ewan Campbell who picked a lovely line and went in under the posts, the try was converted by stand off Tom Monaghan. This seemed to spark the squad into life and some good tactical kicking allowed them to get back into the opposition 22 where Campbell burst over again, converted by Monaghan.

H/T Score 14-0

Marr started the 2nd half as they had finished the first, some outstanding ball running from Aaron Smith getting them on the front foot and then some lovely handling by both forwards and backs setting up multiple scoring opportunities. Ewan Campbell grabbed 3 more tries to finish his morning with 5, Captain Fraser Inglis dived over from some close range following some quick thing at a tap penalty and then Conor Emslie supplied Ian Drummond with a lovely inside pass straight off the training ground to round off the scoring.

MOTM - Ewan Campbell

U16 B v Robert Burns Academy

The boys travelled over to Cumnock to take on a really strong Robert Burns squad littered with Glasgow & The West Academy players. The boys battled hard throughout the match against a very physical RBA side. Marr dominated stages of the first half but were punished by 4 break away tries from RBA who went in 26-0 up at half time.

Marr again fought hard in the 2nd half but couldn't get over the line, RBA went onto to score more tries and the game ended 50-0. Lot's of good performances on the Marr side even in defeat. Joe Jamieson tackled like a demon and battled well at the breakdown, Angus Inglis tackled well and asked questions in defence and Jack Scrivenor who captained the side led well from the front.

A really tough opening fixture for the lads but they never gave up and will reap the rewards in upcoming fixtures.

U15 A v St Columba's

Marr 62-12 St Columba's

Great result on Saturday for the Titans Purple side.

The boys played some nice rugby when they got going, moving the ball wide and scoring in the corner on several occasions.

St Columba's came back into the game after some ill discipline from the Marr boys gave them territory and possession.

Backs man of the match = Blair for his typical handful of try's
Forwards man of the match = Robbie for his constant work rate and unseen work around the pitch

U15 B v Robert Burns Academy

Marr 26-29 Robert Burns Academy

Outstanding effort on Saturday from the Titans Gold squad. Just getting pipped at the post in the last minute. It took the first 20 mins to settle in which is expected since this is the first game of the season for most of them. Bringing the score back in the second 20 mins to trail by a couple of points at halftime.

Then dug in and were leading by 2 points going into last 4 mins, but were put under some serious pressure which finally broke in the last minute. So proud of the boys could see it in their eyes at the end what it meant to them.

Two outstanding players today were Aiden in the backs, and Rory in the forwards. Well done. Final score was Cumnock 29 Marr 26. Very respectable score.

S2 A v St Columba's & Robert Burns Academy

The S2s took on St Columba's and Robert Burns Academy in a mini round robin.

The first game was against St Columba's and the boys immediately took charge of the game and never looked back. As they dominated the game they grew in confidence and there were many pleasing well worked team moves in addition to individual excellence with Jack Dougan's strong running and determination rewarded with a hat-trick. The game finished 63-0 to Marr.

 The second game against Robert Burns Academy was a sterner test. The boys coped well with a physical game worthy of a local derby. The work at the breakdown was pleasing to see in addition to the steely determination to impose their game plan. They won 33-15. Adam Macnab (captain) kicked well, converting 13 of his 14 conversions across the two games.

 Overall it was a strong start to the season with plenty of positives to build on as a team.

S1 A v St Columba's & S1 B v Robert Burns Academy

Marr S1's hosted 2 teams on Saturday. 1st was against St Columba's. Marr were too strong for the visitors and were winning 57- 0 at half time when on agreement with the coaches and referee the game was stopped. Tries from Martin, Naismith, Drummond (2) Moncrieff, Finn McGuffie (2), Aryann McGuffie, Polland and a fantastic catch and score by Mathieson from a crossfield kick. Drummond also landed a few conversions.
Special mention to Kaiden Villaneuva who after only 2 training sessions played his first game of rugby against St Columba's. A great addition to the squad.

Next up was Robert Burns Academy (Cumnock). A good Ayrshire derby saw Marr overcome a strong and feisty RBA team with an end score of 44-0, with tries from Naismith(2), Mathieson, Martin, Finn McGuffie, Moncrieff, Ticcioni & Baig, who supported a great kick and chase by Moncrieff, who was tackled just short of the line but was there to collect the pass and score.

A great morning's rugby with some good running rugby on show and determination in the tackle.

The squads now look forward to Round 2 of the Conference against High School of Glasgow this Saturday.