This week Mackie U13s took on Aberdeen Wanderers at Redcloak. The sun was shining, and very little wind, made a beautiful morning for rugby. Full of confidence from their win last week, the team bond is beginning to show. The pre match warm up had more enthusiasm and encouragement between players and there was lots of moral boosting team chat between the boys in the changing rooms. This is something that is great to see building.

The confidence came out onto the field. They started well playing good rugby. The tackling was good, the breakdown was pretty strong, and it resulted in an even first third. Both teams scoring two tries the first for Mackie coming from Thomas Brainwood on the wing, the second coming from Graeme Whittaker playing hooker to burst through their defence for a crash over try. Both teams missed one conversion, so all square at the end of the first third.

The second third started similar to the first, both teams playing some nice rugby. Sandy Broadley playing full back, made a strong run scoring to take Mackie ahead, and James Wardell was able to convert maintaining his strong kicking record. But Wanderers came back quickly evening the score. Wanderers had a bit more possession, and were applying a lot of pressure, but Mackie did well to hold it off, until the last play of the third, Wanderers were able to break the Mackie defence. They missed their conversion though, so Wanderers with a narrow five point lead. All to play for in the final third.

The final third started with Wanderers scoring another try. Mackie head did not drop, but their frustrations started to show in some ill-discipline. Wanderers spotting they were getting under Mackie skin applied more pressure, and discipline dropped further. It started to get quite scrappy, giving away the ball in the breakdown and some avoidable penalties. This allowed Wanderers to score a further two tries. Final score Mackie 19 v Wanderers 43.

The positives for the coaching staff is the boys were playing as a team. The boys showed passion and commitment, and a want to compete. Which is hard to install. The lesson to be learned is how to turn that passion into constructive rugby.

Mark Goalen, U13s Lead Coach