Midi Girls head to Murrayfield in the National Shield Final
Perthshire Midi Section Girls have been participating in the National Youth Cup, over the last few months. They have come together with Montrose, Dundee and Strathmore to form the Tayside Girls team to compete in the competition.
After a successful pool in which all games were won, Tayside U16 girls met Stirling County in the semi-final. Despite tries by Rowan M. and Ellie-Jo S. Stirling County emerged 46-10 winners. The effort put in by all of the players was outstanding, but they were beaten by a better team who have played more regularly as a squad at a more competitive level.
Although our girls did not win on the day, their remarkable achievement throughout the competition has led them to head to the Murrayfield on Sunday 27th March to play in the National Shield Final against Caithness, this will be played at Edinburgh’s Dam Health Stadium Kick Off 11am.
The National Cup competition has been a hugely positive experience for all our players, bringing long overdue levels of equality to girl’s rugby and finding a level at which they can push themselves onto to better levels of achievement both as players and as individuals. It has been impressive how they have come together from four clubs across Tayside instantly creating an inclusive and welcoming environment.
The Saltire Energy’s Caledonia Cup has seen our Colt’s, U16’s and U15’s boys teams come top of their pools at the quarter final stages giving them the opportunity to host all Semi Final games at home on the North Inch last weekend.
On Saturday our Colts took on Aberdeen Wanderers. Here they managed to shut out the opposition and scored steadily throughout the game ending up with 7 tries and 4 conversions for a 43-0 win. They will now make the trip up to Stonehaven on Saturday to face Mackie in the Semi Final.
Our U16’s welcomed Orkney to the North Inch on Sunday. Early exchanges showed that both sides were up for It, with both team’s forwards battling it out. Perthshire eventually secured some good position mid-way through the first half and with the ball passed out to the backs they ran in two tries. Orkney fought their way back into the game and after a prolonged period camped inside Perthshire’s 22 to score a well-earned try. Half time saw Perthshire lead 12-7.
The coaches always have confidence in the U16’s fitness and this showed in the second half with Perthshire scoring a further 5 tries to Orkney’s 1 to win the game comfortably 39-14. This was a great team performance with two tries each for Ollie MdS and Ollie M and further tries from Ben M, Bailey F and Jamie L.
Shire U15’s hosed Ellon RFC for the semi-final of the cup in a nail-biting game from start to finish. After a frenzied first 10 minutes Shire settled down and the first try came through simple rugby played well, culminating in Max G. placing the ball over the line and quickly followed by a second from Fionnlagh M. Ellon responded with heart to see them fight back with a try form their left wing outpacing the defence.
The second half continued at the same pace as the first, with both teams matching each other every step until Fraser D. broke through the line to cover 60m only to be called back for a forward pass. This energised the Shire to double down on their effort and push Ellon until they broke through for a third try, provided by Fionnlagh, making the final score 19-5.
Good luck to all our teams who will be playing for Perthshire Rugby this weekend.
