On Wednesday afternoon the the College U16 squad welcomed Dollar Academy to the Playing Fields for Round 2 of the Scottish Cup. We enjoyed a bye in Round 1 following last year's run to the Semin Finals.

It had been a miserable day in Troon and the weather didn't ease up for Kick Off, it was clear the conditions were going to have an impact on how the game was played.

Dollar kicked off and Marr immediately showed that they were up for the contest, a long kick downfield to relieve the pressure and then a wall of Purple & Gold jerseys chasing to pin Dollar in their own half. The defence was ferocious with Jamie Dunsmuir, Jamie Blair, Monty Dougan & Vice Captain Lyle Hill all making dominant tackles. This pressure forced a very kickable penalty just outside the Dollar 22 which Tom Monaghan knocked over.

Marr got straight back into the Dollar half from the subsequent kick off and more outstanding defence clearly has the visitors rattled! They were struggling to get out of their own half and some dominant carries from Ewan Campbell and Captain Fraser Inglis got Marr up to the Dollar goal line before Ben McBlain crashed over for our opening try. Tom Monaghan nailed the conversion.

Some more great work at the Kick Off and a booming clearance from Tom put Dollar back in their own 22 again. More excellent defence got Marr the ball back and Ian Drummond found a gap on the blindside, he beat 2-3-4 defenders to power his way to the line and stretch out to score. Tom again with a lovely conversion in the tricky wind.

Marr again got themselves into the Dollar half with more smart rugby and again put the visitors under immense pressure. A penalty was won and Tom slotted another 3 points off the boot. Marr continued to make chances and possibly should have bagged a couple more tries however the weather was making the ball slippery and a few went begging.

In the final minute of the first half Marr worked their way down to the Dollar goal line following more impressive carries from Ewan Campbell and Aaron Smith. Scrum half Connor Emslie picked from the ruck, interested the Dollar defence and flicked a lovely inside ball to Ewan Morrison to crash over under the posts. Tom wasn't going to give up his 100% record and slotted another conversion.

H/T Marr 27-0 Dollar - Comfortably the boys best 35 mins of Rugby this Season! Outstanding defence, clinical attack and the attitude was spot on.

Marr kicked off in the the second half and things looked like they would follow a similar tale as the first. Getting deep into Dollar's half and putting on pressure. This time Dollar did well to repel the attack and countered in some style, shipping the ball to their right winger who burned the Marr wing and full back to sprint 80 metres for an outstanding try.

This seemed to spark Dollar into life and Marr started to make errors which after the first half performance seemed very uncharacteristic! Another raid into the Marr 22 resulted in another Dollar converted try and suddenly the score was 27-14.

It would have been easy for the Marr lads to drop their heads and allow the pressure to get to them but they wrestled back the momentum and put the pressure back on Dollar. Marr needed a spark and up stepped Fraser Inglis, making a break from inside his own half off another solid scrum and beating the fullback to go over. Monaghan with the conversion.

A massive carry from Aaron Smith got the lads deep into the 22 and when everyone thought (including the referee) that the ball had to go right, Monty Dougan popped round the left of the ruck and grounded the ball. Tom again converting.

The coaching team were incredibly happy with attitude of the boys, every player was outstanding especially in the first half and having the ability to wrestle back the momentum was key.

Try Scorers:
Ben McBlain
Ian Drummond
Ewan Morrison
Fraser Inglis
Monty Dougan

Conversions: Tom Monaghan - 5
Penalties - Tom Monaghan - 2

MOTM - Lyle Hill
An outstanding all round performance from the Vice Captain. Leading from the front in defence, dominating the lineout and hitting more rucks than I could count.

Up next is Merchiston Castle - Away on 11th November.