The East Lothian Falcons rugby squad end the May Pathway programme on a high.
The East Lothian Falcons squad recently took part in the National Pathway Programme which is the start of the elite performance pathway for rugby players in Scotland. The players are all currently finishing their U15 season and the pathway games were an opportunity to identify talent for the selection of the regional U16 Academy teams for the start of next season. Players from East Lothian will join up with the Borders to form the Borders & East Lothian Regional Academy U16 team.
The East Lothian Falcons squad was selected after attending numerous skills camps and selection sessions in the lead up to the two fixtures. This culminated in the selection of a squad of 28 players to be involved in the two pathway fixtures. The squad only had three sessions to prepare for their first game once selected which was against a strong Western chargers outfit from Edinburgh. The game was played at Lasswade RFC and the boys realised they were playing at a higher level and intensity than they are used to when they quickly went down by three tries within the first 20 minutes of the game. The defence struggled to cope with the pace and skill of the opposition but managed to hold on. Just before half time, the Falcons ran a set move from a scrum and managed to break the line score a great try from their own half. This bought them back into the game and after a few changes at halftime, the boys came out firing in the second half. With a much improved defensive effort and some good attacking play, the Falcons outscored the Chargers by 2 tries to 1 in the second half but this wasn’t enough to claim the victory and they ended up losing by 4 tries to 3.
The Falcons squad continued to train throughout May and were well prepared for their last Pathway fixture against the Edinburgh Capital Crusaders. The fixture took place down in Galashiels on the 3G pitch and the Falcons squad were determined to show the improvements they had made from the hard work they had put in since their opening loss. From the outset, the Falcons were dominant and scored 5 tries in the first half. The Capital Crusaders managed 1 score in the first half. The Falcons kept up the intensity in the second half but also made some unforced errors which prevented them from finishing off numerous opportunities. They ended up scoring another two unanswered tries in the second to ruin out 41-5 victors. This fixture against the Crusaders has been a closely fought affair in recent years so the squad were really pleased to win so convincingly. Hopefully this bodes well for the future and we will see a number of these boys progress onto the Academy squad that will play district fixtures in August.
Overall it has been a successful programme with around 30 boys being involved in the fixtures and all of them showing improvements over the course of the Pathway Programme.
