A visit to the impressive Meggetland Sports Complex brought the curtain down on another season for the Under 15s. Our hosts Boroughmuir RFC are one of the top sides in Scottish youth rugby, and their U15s were unbeaten for two years, having collected numerous regional honours in that time. In short....this was going to be a massive test to end the season.

After an encouraging warm-up (usually a bad sign!), the match kicked off and it was Boroughmuir who exerted the early pressure, enforcing the intelligence we had that they would come at us very strongly. Indeed, just shy of the 5 min mark they opened the scoring and converted for a 7-0 lead. There was no need to panic, we were defending well but failing to gather much ball - we were in the game.

Controlled rugby from two good sides made scoring difficult until late in the half when Zico expertly stripped the ball just outside the opposition 22, and fed Will V who stepped forward and delivered a beautifully timed looping pass (the lumbering lock has that in his locker!) to Will S waiting out wide. The left wingers turn of speed and exquisite side step beat both winger and full back and he was able to curve in under the posts. Fab knocked it over and we were level. A missed penalty attempt from Stortford closed the half 7-7.

A passionate half time team talk from the coaches (think porridge, Culloden and the Calcutta Cup...) sent the team out in high spirits for the final half of the season, and boy did they deliver! What followed was 15 mins of high paced, intense rugby that our hosts (and this is no insult at all) could not live with - we were excellent. Matt F, who had been excellent all match, opened the scoring when he dived over following great hands from skipper Sam F. Next Zico powered through, breaking several tackles before offloading to Will S for the winger to cross for a second try (7-21). Our flowing rugby, rapid ruck speed (I know!) and timely offloading piled the pressure onto the Scots and another try soon came, Andrei diving over to put our forwards onto the score sheet. Fab missed the kick...

Our final try came when Carter was rewarded for a superb performance at fly-half as he cross the line to make it 7-31. Rob, frunstrated by Fab's previous miss, decided it was time for a change...unfortunately Jasper's conversion attempt fell just short of the posts, however this didn't stop our trusted loose-head from celebrating wildly!

With minutes to go the coaches experimented with substitutions, but I'm not sure what they learned from Greer's fullback appearance, and Andrei is clearly not a number 10! Boroughmuir stuck to the task and were deservedly rewarded with a late try to close the scoring at 14-31.

This was an excellent performance against one of the top sides in Scotland, and a fantastic way to close our season. The effort and commitment from every single player was immense, and we produced rugby of the highest quality. Our superior fitness and speed (all earned on those wet Wednesday nights) proved key. In our final huddle it was impossible not to feel the emotion; it was clear what this victory meant to our lads...they are on a journey, and it is their journey....where it ends no one knows, but they'll admire the view on the way!

Well played boys, we can give you no bigger compliment than to say you've made us proud!

Mark & Rob