An End to a Great Season

After our awesome weekend away at Skye it was time to get back into rugby.

This weekend we found out about how our play-offs for Caledonia 1 would be structured. It was to be a 3-way playoff between us, Glenrothes and Ellon (who came 3^rd from bottom in the league above us this season). The Scottish Rugby Union apparently change the league structures each year. This year they decided that two teams from the National League would drop down into Caledonia 1, having a flow on effect down the leagues which is why we had to play the 3^rd from bottom Ellon.

Our first match was to be at home against Ellon on the 20^th of April, which I had heard was quite a local derby. Some of the older members of the club were saying that it would be great to beat them. After the sevens it was back to some hard work at training. We had a good turnout on Tuesday and because we knew Ellon had a solid forward pack we focused on tackling and taking the ball into contact. The boys were buzzing after training and there was a good feeling going around the club. Thursdays training was even better, and we had about 30 boys down – by far the most for a long time apparently. Because of the good turnout we were able to have an opposed session with both the backs & the forwards. The clubhouse was full for the team announcement after training and it was pretty exciting stuff before the big game on Saturday.

After a good warm-up on Saturday the boys were ready to go. We had said that we needed an 80min performance and had to play hard for each other. We had the wind in the first half and after we let in a soft try at the start of the game, we dominated the rest of the half with some classic fast-paced Garioch attack. From every kick-off we were threatening, taking the ball in safely, getting a couple of good forward runs in and then spreading it to the backs where Raeper (first 5), Chris (second 5) and Martin McRobbie (centre) were carving it up. We scored 3 great tries in the first half to be leading 27-7 at the break. The second half was a different story with Ellon (with the wind) pinning us down in our own half and using their forwards to dominate more than the first half. They clawed their way back and it was an intense final 10mins with them sitting at 25-27 behind us. We put out some great defence and with a couple of calls going our way managed to win the derby match! What a day for the club, as not only did we beat Ellon, but we were also awarded our cup for winning the Caledonia 2 North League. In the after match speeches it was a pleasant surprise to be awarded man-of-the-match by the Ellon teams captain. Spirits were high and we had a great night out with players and supporters alike.

A great end to a great day - beating Ellon & getting presented with our trophy!

Peter (forwards coach) & myself - Proud coaches!

The following week was away to Glenrothes, a 2.5 hour bus journey to a place just north of Edinburgh. The lead-up was good with another good week of training, and we were keen to win to get guaranteed promotion for next season. We were missing a couple of key players from the week before but still managed to put out a fairly competitive team on the day. We didn’t start very well and let in two pretty soft tries in the first 10 minutes of the game. We got back on track and started playing our fast-paced game, managing to take the lead by halftime 14-10. We extended this out to 21-10 just after the break after a great charge-down try to the Aussie, but things didn’t go our way after this. Simple mistakes let us down a bit and their forwards really started to dominate us towards the end of the game. They got two tries in quick succession (giving them a 22-21 lead) before we scored again to re-take the lead 27-22. They got yet another try to take the lead with about 10 minutes to go. It was a credit to our team that we battled right to the end but unfortunately couldn’t get the win. If we had played the way we had the week before it would have been an easy win, but that is just rugby I guess.

Club dinner/prizegiving was the last event on the Garioch calendar for the 2012/2013 season. It was a formal occasion so I decided to wear a kilt to get into the Scottish spirit. It was a great evening with a meal, speakers and presentation of awards. I had a bit of a speech to thank the club for everything they had done for me this year, and presented the club president (Colin McRobbie) with a pounamu necklace to thank him personally.

Cant get this up the right way but you get the picture..

What a season it was in my first proper coaching role.. Couldn’t have asked for a better bunch of lads to work with. Hopefully Peter and I have taught them a thing or two and I have definitely learned a lot myself! I would say one of the best things I have brought to the team has been the BROTHERS call, which was done before we went out to the field. The idea is that we play like brothers, support each other like brothers, and enjoy our rugby together out on the field. I find it gets you fired up before you play and think the boys have really taken in the call as their own. I have no doubt that the call will stay with the team in years to come.