More than 130 youngsters took part in Stewartry Shark’s minis tournament at Greenlaw on Sunday.
The Sharks were joined by Annan Tigers and Moffat Rams, with some of the Stewartry first team on hand to help out with refereeing.
A healthy turnout of P6 and P7s saw them play their own round-robin tournament, with Stewartry’s P6 side starting against Annan.
Big tackles from Aiden, Euan and Tyler created pressure, pushing Annan back to forcing turnover ball which allowed them to break up the pitch and score first. Annan hit back immediately following good recycling work at the breakdown and found some gaps in the Stewartry defence.
Stewartry’s running game was rewarded with Alex nipping down the wing to score in the corner, only to have that cancelled out by another Annan try following an extended period of pressure on the Stewartry try-line. Further positive play from Henry, Gregor and Mitch saw another try chalked up for the home team and the game swung back and forth until the last few seconds when Annan managed to cross for a leveller to draw a compelling match.
Next up was Moffat. Stewartry stepped up their quality and through the dancing feet of Arthur and Rory, direct running from Jack, Logan and Euan along with great physicality from the rest of the team, they managed to build a convincing lead, scoring some great tries. Moffat, to their credit, also created some well worked tries from their jinky runners and made it a tough match throughout.
After a short break, it was back to the pitch to complete another round of fixtures against the same opposition. With Stewartry benefitting from a packed subs bench, their fresher legs started to tell against the opposition and in the next two games, the P6 team pushed on to two further victories.
This was the best performance that the P6s have put in this season by far, testament to the hard work expended at training, and it’s fabulous to see them growing as individuals and as a team.
The P7 team were also blessed with the numerical advantage, and in order to keep the sides even, loaned players to the opposition to ensure competition in the games.
Starting against Moffat, the characteristic off-loading game was on display, generating tries from Freddy, Alex and Zander before Moffat hit back via loan Stewartry player Ciaran. Sam rounded off the game to finish it as a convincing home win, with Ciaran and Jacob joining in for Moffat and not making life easy for their teammates.
In their second game they faced Annan, with some big ball carriers in their line-up (also bolstered by Murray M and Jack). As has become typical for the P7s, their second game saw them lose the rustiness from their first game and they were convincing winners with tries from Callum, Alfie, Alex, Rory, Freddie and a brace for Lily.
In the third match, Stewartry again took the win, though the match was a scrappier affair. Despite that, there were lots of positive aspects to Stewartry’s play with fantastic handling, excellent rucking and competition at the breakdown enabling them to secure the victories in both matches.
The Stewartry Sharks P4/5s played as a combined team and it was great to see how much they have come on. They won all their matches due to some tough defensive tackling and great use of space when in possession. In their coach’s words “they all played brilliantly today” and should be very proud.
The improvement in the P1-3s was fantastic to see too with lots of encouragement, calling and passing to each other which resulted in tries and more importantly smiles all round.
After the tournament, first team captain John Picken made a presentation to Stewartry Sharks’ sponsors Duncan McConchie of Laggan and Iain McMorran of Brian Carson Building Contractors as a thank you for their continued support.
