After the torrential rain on the Friday the Super Twa’s welcomed Banff to a rather damp and soggy Woodside. The team had the extra motivation of finally trying to beat a team that seemed to have the Super Twa’s number even though it never really added up.

The Twa’s started the game well dominating possession and territory but anxious play prevented the city slickers turning their pressure into points. As the half moved on, more composure crept into the home teams play and from excellent pressure from the Shire midfield defence the ball was spilled by Banff and Shire’s Mally ‘Messi’ White showed great footballing skills to kick through before sliding in for an overdue try for the hosts. The conversion was missed by Wullie Parker but he did make amends later in the half by adding 3 points to the Shire half time total. 8 points was a small reward for the dominance shown by the hosts, but the half time team talk focused on control and power at the breakdown, to construct the phase play rugby that Banff wouldn’t be able to live with.

The second half began as a more even contest with the Shire pack happy to accept the slow lumbering runs of the Banff forwards all too easily. However the more the half ticked on the more control Shire showed in attack, getting the ball to the outside backs in good attacking positions on a few occasions. Midway through the half the Banff pack began to struggle with the pace of the game and had to sub one of their props, with no front row cover scrums became uncontested. This led to the highlight of the match with burley centre Wullie Parker fulfilling a childhood dream of playing in the front row when he replaced skipper Littlejohn who had also ran out of gas. This highlight was doubled with converted crash ball centre Iain ‘turbine’ Irvine joining big Wullie in the boiler house at lock, partnering the experienced beanpole Jonty Mason. This led to some shambolic lineout play for a brief period but the scrum was solid!

From one such scrum close to the touchline the Shire backs lit up the murky day with some dazzling back play, ending in Joe Osakawacky cruising round the despairing Banff defence to score a lovely try in the far corner.

Shire added 2 more penalties from the boot of ‘Orkney Messi’ Mally White who had a stellar performance in the midfield. The only blip in a hard fought second half was a soft consolation try from a tap penalty to flatter the final score line somewhat.

Final score Aberdeenshire 19-7 Banff.

On reflection this was a good win for the home team, giving the whole squad the confidence and self-belief to perform at this level. Hopefully this can be continued throughout the season, so as they can go into all of the games knowing that they can trouble any of the teams in this league.