East Lothian Falcons U16’s Make Good Progress

The East Lothian Falcons U16 rugby team recently competed in the national pathways programme and showed great character in their two games against tough opposition from Edinburgh.

The U16 pathway programme includes two teams from the Borders and 3 teams from Edinburgh as well as the East Lothian Falcons team. This is the starting point for all the players in their quest to be selected to play district and national age grade rugby. On the first weekend of fixtures the Falcons team lost to the Edinburgh Western Chargers in a closely contested game. They showed great determination on defence and worked really hard for each other. On attack, they couldn’t convert the pressure they applied into points and made some mistakes at crucial times. They ended up losing 17-5 as Finlay Darrah scored a consolation try towards the end of the game.

The squad worked hard over the two weeks of training and this hard work paid off on the second weekend of fixtures with a hard fought win. They came up against the much fancied Capital Crusaders from Edinburgh that includes the best players from all the rugby playing schools in Edinburgh. Playing with the wind in the first half the Falcons used it to their advantage to gain good field position. They built pressure deep in the opposition half and managed to score two tries through Ross Blair and Finlay Darrah. In the second half, the boys were playing into a strong wind and had to keep the ball through the phases and defend for long periods of time without the ball. Although they conceded 2 tries in the second half, they managed to work themselves up the pitch and score a try of their own through Timon Van Rensburg. The final score of 15-12 reflected the close nature of the game and the standard and competitiveness of the fixtures will definitely benefit the development of all the players involved. It was rewarding to see all the hard work of the boys pay off and they all showed great improvement over the course of the programme. The next phase of the programme will see the trials taking place for the South of Scotland region where the East Lothian and Borders teams will combine to form one U16 district team.