Mackie U13s took on Ellon away from home this weekend. Ellon are always a formidable opposition which they demonstrated again today. The pitch was in good condition, the rain held off (mostly) and it was not too cold given the time of year. There was a strong northerly wind, and so we agreed to play half’s rather than thirds to avoid one team getting the advantage.

As the first half got underway it quickly became apparent that Ellon’s tackling was strong, they were quick and strong in the breakdown repeatedly clearing Mackie out the ruck and turning the ball over. They could quickly reset from a defensive position to an attacking line up, and that they could get the ball down the line to some fast backs. Ellon went quickly ahead scoring 5 tries in the first 15mins. Mackie needed a bit of a reset, and so some of the S2 boys who are still U13s stepped in to help. Thank you to Henry Aitken, Duncan Inglis, and Thomas Smith who took to the field to play the last 5mins of the first half, and the first 10mins of the second half. They settled the team, gave them some confidence, and started to even things slightly. Despite the changes Ellon kept powering through adding another 4 tries.

With an ever-escalating score line Mackie did not give up, and they did not make it easy for Ellon, the tackles kept going in, the breakdown got more even and there were some strong runs from Calvin Sadio, Graeme Whittaker, James Wardell, Murray McLauglin and Sandy Broadly, but the Ellon defence was strong. With 10 minutes to go Murray, James and Sandy went forward supporting each other offload after offload until Murray crossed the line to get some much-needed points on the board and James was able to convert. This gave the boys another lift, and they raised their efforts again. Murray managing to score again only a few minutes after his first try but the strong wind prevented the second conversion.

Final score Ellon 78 v Mackie 12. A tough game, the boys are improving, but still, lots of things to work on when we get back to the training field.

Mark Goalen, U13s Lead Coach