Stewartry Sharks rounded off the season in style by claiming the J Birrel Tournament Trophy at Moffat Rugby Club on Sunday.
The future looks bright for the club after this latest success, which follows on from Stewartry Sirens winning their league and the men’s team winning promotion and the National Shield.
The Sharks faced teams from Newton Stewart, Biggar, Strathaven, Annan and hosts Moffat.
The P1/2 team played a festival format, showing off their passing and scoring lots of tries. They should be very proud of themselves.
The P3s won their tournament for the second year in a row, going unbeaten and conceding just one try – scored by one of their own players who helped make up the numbers for Strathaven!
Wins of 4-0, 2-0, 5-1 and 5-0 gave them the title with Layton recognised as player of the tournament. The whole team – Noah, Jack, Jasper, Fred, Archie, Adrian, Layton and Parker – played out of their skins.
The P4/5s played as a combined team in the P5 section and held their own despite most of the team being younger than their opponents. After narrowly losing to Biggar, they won comfortably against Moffat, Annan and Strathaven before missing out after a narrow defeat to Newton Stewart. The team were fantastic, showing off what they have learnt with fantastic tackles, looking for the ball in the breakdown and scoring some cracking tries. It was Coby and Finlay B’s debuts for this team but it was hard to tell they had only started in the last week or so.
The P6s began their tournament with a strong performance against Strathaven, even if the result didn’t go their way. Annan were up next and the team didn’t stop tackling and making breaks, although Annan emerged with the win. The sheer size of the Annan team told in the end and it was a tiring Stewartry team who faced Moffat.
Galvanised by stand in coach Andy, they took the game by the scruff of the neck and recorded a fantastic win before losing to Biggar in their final game.
Full credit goes to the P6 team that included Aiden, Euan, Mitch, Arthur, Sam, Rory, Alec, Logan, Tyler, Harris and Gregor. It was a difficult day as a few more experienced players were unable to take part but they didn’t give up and showed real progress both individually and as a team.
The P7s began against Biggar, a repeat of the deciding match from 2022. It was a compelling contest with both sides playing great rugby as Stewartry came out on top. Their next game was against Moffat, who had some real quality runners in their team. The score strongly favoured Stewartry at the end but it was a well contested game.
Familiar opponents Annan were next and they caused the Stewartry team some real problems in defence, with a series of penalties given away, and frustration getting the better of the team at times. Nevertheless, the innate passing and running skills that have been such a feature of this P7 team came through and saw them run out as winners again.
New opponents Strathaven were next, with the hulking opposition runners causing immediate problems. However, Stewartry managed to get the better of them to set up a deciding match with Newton Stewart, who were also unbeaten. It was also the last time the P7s would take to the field together and they were well motivated and keen to use all the teamwork and skills developed over the course of their journey through the mini-section. It was a fantastic contest to watch, with no quarter given, and Stewartry took a narrow 3-2 win. At the final whistle, the elated players celebrated a hard fought victory, with the emotion visible on both sets of players for all the effort they had put in. It was a fitting finish for the P7s – including Zander, Cameron, Lily, Alfie, Ciaran, Rory, Freddie, Callum, Jack, Sam and Matthew – and their coaches Ralph, Freya and Frank.
