Loretto 7s

In the first Tournament of the season the U11 team won the Loretto Sevens on Sunday 21st September. A full report of the matches by Mr Osborne appears below.

Pool Matches:
v Heriot's lost 3–10, v Cargilfield Won 12–0, vNewcastle SB Won 14–6
Semi-final: Craigclowan won 3 – 4
Final: v Heriots: won 3–0 (in extra time)                     

It was very evident that in our pool were the two toughest opponents: Heriot's, last year’s winners, and Cargilfield, last year’s runners up.  Our first match was one to forget. After leading at half time, we fell apart in the second half with Heriot's scoring three tries to win convincingly.  The next match was a must-win for the boys, and we played the best game of the tournament beating Cargilfield 12–0.  This meant if we won the final match against Newcastle School for Boys we would progress to the semi-final.  The team did just this which meant we came second in the pool, and secured a spot in the semi-final against Craigclowan.  A very tight match ended with us winning in the dying moments.  We were in the finals against Heriot's.  The match started frantically with both sides trying to get the psychological edge and score first.  Ben A, and Jordan C who had both been superb the entire day were proving to be a handful, and came close on a few occasions.  At half time the score remained 0–0, and the team was told to hang in and keep the ball.  Heriot's were better in the second half, but the Merchiston defence stood tall, and this was epitomised by Oliver K’s try-saving tackle in the dying moments; pushing the game into sudden death extra time.

Heriot's looked deflated and we pounced, attacking their line from the kick off.  Sustained pressure forced a penalty and Captain Ben A tapped and scored a very ugly try running backwards, and then sideways before eventually heading for the corner to score the winning try.  The boys were delighted and deserved winners!  A special moment was seeing the D1 boys (who had been unlucky not to make the semis losing out on points difference) run on and congratulate the boys. 

Thank you to all the parents for the support throughout the day – I am sure a glass of wine was enjoyed that evening after such tense moments.