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Caledonia Success for Deeside U16s

Caledonia Success for Deeside U16s

Sandra Marshall10 May 2018 - 08:43
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A long road to travel on the 'Road to Caley'.

Following on from their success in the 2017 Caledonia cup at U15, Deeside were once again back at St Andrews for the Caledonia finals at U16s. This time they were competing in the Shield final against none other than Stirling County! The squad were strengthened by the addition of 2 Inverurie based players and competed under the Deeside/Garioch banner. This years ‘Road to Caley’ saw the squad travel the length of Caledonia during the competition in which they played 6 away games and only 1 at home. It kicked off in January with an overnight trip to Thurso to play Caithness in the 1st round of the cup, with a convincing 51-7 win. Next up was a trip to St Andrews to play Madras on a cold, windy afternoon in late January. Again, the team came away with a resounding 26-8 victory. The quarter-finals of the cup saw the squad on the road again to Inverness to play Highland at their impressive new ground, including a newly laid 4G pitch. Injuries and the playing surface took their toll and the boys were defeated 25-5 in a game that was not as one sided as the score suggests. This put Deeside/Garioch into the Shield competition where they were once again on the road, this time to Invergordon to play Ross Sutherland. In a ‘too close for comfort’ game, the team came away with a narrow 19-18 win with a great fighting late comeback to score 12 points in the last 20 minutes. This set them up with their first home tie of the competition against no other than last year’s cup finalist opponents Howe of Fife. It was expected to be a close game but once again the team showed their class and ran out 46-5 winners in what was a rather one-sided affair.

Sunday 29th April saw the team line up against Stirling County in summer like conditions in St Andrews. The squad was bolstered by the return of Zander Thomson after an eight month absence through major surgery. The boys started the game with intensity that the opposition were clearly not ready for and within 20 minutes were 28-0 up through tries from Silcock, Fraser, Wallace and Meldrum with Wallace slotting all 4 conversions. The Stirling County side had no answer to the hard running and fierce defence of the Deeside/Garioch boys. A further unconverted score from Taylor put the team well in control with only 5 minutes of the first half remaining. A scuffle between Bull and his opposite number saw the Stirling County player red carded and left Bull nursing some battle scars. When the second half kicked off, Deeside/Garioch let the opposition back in with some poor defending and Stirling scored two early tries, converting one to bring the score back to 33-12. This fired the team back into action and there were soon an array of running tries scored in the next 20 minutes as Meldrum, Cowie, Taylor, Silcock and Fraser (2) crossed the line and Wallace adding one further conversion to put the game well and truly out of reach of Stirling County. Some stern defensive work on their own line and good clearance kicking from within the 22m prevented Stirling from crossing the whitewash again and the full time whistle couldn’t come soon enough for their players. Another successful day at what has come to feel like Deeside’s second home over the past two seasons.

The club, in conjunction with Garioch, will now compete in the Mitsubishi Lancer Conference in the 2018/19 season at all age groups from U13 to U18 and play fixtures against Mackie, Ellon, Gordonstoun School, Moray/Huntly, Granite City and Dundee Rugby. They are always on the lookout for new players to play at any age group, so if you are interested please contact Mike on mcfraser100@hotmail.com in the first instance.

Back row (l to r) Jarvis Bull, George Grahamslaw, Dougal Whyte, Oliver Taylor (capt), James Falls, Cameron Taylor, Will Davie, Callum Scott, Daniel Elllington, Robert Long.
Middle row (l to r) Alex Bushby, Callum Ronald, Ben Thomson, Ben Cowie, Ralph Silcock, Zander Thomson.
Front row (l to r) Rory Meldrum, Angus Fraser.

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