Victory against Queen Vic sees U18s progress to Shield Quarter Final
U18s 53 – 21 Queen Vic National Schools Shield
Wednesday 9th October 2024
Match Report by Gordon Muir
Linlithgow welcomed Queen Victoria’s School to Mains Park on a cool and overcast October afternoon for the First Round of the National Schools Plate. The Young Reds had slipped into the lower-tier knockout competition after their chastening Cup defeat to a very good Loretto side, while Queen Victoria’s come out on the wrong end of a close game against St Aloysius’ College.
The Young Reds went into the match feeling relatively confident, as a team with a 100% record at the halfway point in the East Schools Conference. However, the visitors were a relatively unknown quantity, having last met Linlithgow three years ago as under 16s and won the honours on that occasion.
At 3pm, after a shower of rain to grease up the pitch and the ball, the Reds kicked off to Queen Victoria’s and the game was afoot. The home side were clearly determined to make a strong start and were quick off the mark in defence, making dominant tackles and forcing QVS back into their own territory. A touch of over-eagerness led to the first penalty of the day, which the visiting 10 missed touch and Reds full-back Ethan showed the first of several skilful evasive runs to take it back to halfway. Next on the ball was Cammie, whose bullocking run got behind the QVS defence and set a platform for a quick attack. The ball was worked right through a couple of phases and then some slick draw-and-pass play from the backs put Alex Hall into space on the wing, which was all he needed to score the first try of the game, which Alfie converted with a drop kick thanks to a temporarily misplaced kicking tee.
The slippery conditions caused both teams some difficulty after the restart, with QVs benefitting most from a series of scrums and steadily working their way down the pitch to put pressure on the Linlithgow defence. The home side absorbed the pressure and soon had a scrum on their own 5m line. 20 seconds later, it was another Linlithgow try, thanks to a long clearance kick, a rapid chase by Calum Hall, a helpful bounce and lightning 80 yard run, a tap tackle by the QV wing and determined and ultimately successful support running by Kai who arrived on the scene at the perfect moment to gather Calum’s pop pass off the deck and carry over for a superb opportunist try. 12-0 to Linlithgow after 10 minutes and it felt like the floodgates could be about to open.
The visitors had other ideas, however, and deserve great credit for the way they fought their way back into the match over the next ten closely-contested minutes, leading up to a couple of penalties deep in the Linlithgow half, eventually bursting over for a well-deserved score.
Queen Vic’s took heart from their success and were running that bit harder as they looked to build on it, helped by a couple of uncharacteristic handling errors from the home side giving the visitors possession. It was a familiar Young Reds issue – a desire to play too much rugby in their own half when they might be better clearing the ball down field – that set the platform for QVS to score next; although it took a sublime piece of skill to execute it, as the visiting 10 slid a cute grubber kick off his boot and their 11 hacked it on perfectly to wrong-foot the home defence and sprint through to score. With a successful conversion, Queen Victoria’s led for the first time, 14-12 with 10 first-half minutes remaining.
To give credit where it’s due, there was no sense of panic from the Young Reds; rather, a cool determination to play smarter rugby and control the ball for longer periods. The focus in training for the past week had been on presenting clean and quick ball after the tackle, creating opportunities to put speed and width into the attack and to stress the opposing defence. It was brilliant to see plenty of examples of this over the next period, with Harley, Lewis and others carrying hard and working the ball back quickly as Linlthgow built pressure over a number of phases. Sure enough, space opened up in due course allowing Ethan S to break a half-tackle 25 yards out and charge through for an excellent try, duly converted to take the score to 19-14, which is how it remained until half-time.
The second half began at a good pace, with both teams realising that the next score was likely to be crucial. The Reds kept their focus on retaining and creating quick ball, and the early exchanges also saw them attacking the wider channels with some success. Drier conditions and growing confidence saw them moving the ball very effectively and they were in an excellent attacking position when the ref rightly stopped play to allow the QVS coaches to attend to a head knock. The player, thankfully OK, left the pitch and play restarted with a scrum around 5m out, from which Finn picked up and dived over for a score that did much to settle home nerves.
The game entered a back-and-forth phase, with a lot of scrums and a few penalties for each side that moved play up and down the field but generated little in the way of clean-cut chances until the ball went through five pairs of hands to find Calum Hall on the far wing and he showed his pace to scorch in from 60 metres.
The next score was the try of the match – and one of the best of the season so far from this U18 team. A quick tap penalty was taken towards the lefthand side on the Reds 10m line and the ball taken forward to attack the right flank. A mix of passes before contact, offloads and well timed draw-and passes got the ball to Murray, who burst up the line before passing perfectly back inside to Alex Hall who ran the try in from 25 yards with three Linlithgow players and not too many QVs in attendance! A great team try and terrific to see the workrate from all the players to get into those supporting lines.
The game was effectively won with just five minutes to go and a 38-14 lead and the Young Reds were having a crack at everything. The next score came from a counter-ruck won by Alfie on half way. The ball made its way to Cam who made ground and drew in defenders, then Miller on the first of two tremendous runs in the same passage of play. A couple of pick-and-goes trundled it up another couple of yards and then it was out to Miller again to make another dozen. With players lining up to score on the left hand side, it was Lewis Smith who ran in on a terrific line to break the defence and chalk up another score to the Reds. 45-14.
With the game going fast and loose, it was the visitors’ turn to get their hands on the ball and score a consolation try. Two minutes later, the final word went to Alex Hall, who received a tip pass to dive over under the posts for a converted try which made the final score 52-21.
It was a really good performance from the team, who came through some tough challenges along the way to figure out the best way to play. As coaches, it was particularly heartening to see the improvement in ball presentation and the speed advantage that gave the team. It was also terrific to see how many of the tries involved multiple passes as the whole team look for gaps and get the ball into space. This stands them in good stead for the rest of the season, starting with Morrisons Academy (away) in the Quarter Final round of the Plate.