West U16 Cup

Lochaber U16's played their first West Region Youth Cup game, against Allan Glen’s RFC, on Sunday 23rd January in perfect weather conditions. A full squad of 17 travelled to the game at Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow.

With 15 minutes of the 70 minute game left, it was over from a competition perspective, as Allan Glen’s were by then more than 50 points in front, the score line being Allan Glen’s 58, Lochaber 7. From there the Lochaber boys had three choices:-

· They could call an early halt to the game;

· They could draft in a few Allan Glen’s boys and play the last 15 minutes as two roughly equal teams;

· They could carry on and play out the full 70 minutes.

To the Lochaber boys great credit, they elected for the latter, and managed to restrict Allan Glen’s to 2 further tries, while scoring another themselves. Match Captain and second rower J-J Blackley had a great game, organising his team well and being generally indestructible in the forward exchanges, whether in attack, defence, or at the set piece. Callum McCaig played well at Number 8 until going off late in the game with a shoulder injury. Sascha Dobrokhodova showed what a useful player he is, despite his inexperience, by starting at flanker and then slotting in at centre – performing creditably in both positions. Also in the backs, Josh Seymour was a bit rusty to start with, but gradually made his presence felt with good tackling, ball carrying, and last but not least kicking. Archie and Robbie Gray from Knoydart provided some much-needed pace, stamina, and go forward on the wings.

The boys never gave up in this game, there was no blame culture or team arguments on the pitch, and they were well-behaved visitors off the pitch. The conclusions from last week’s game against Oban Lorne still hold - they have a lot of work to do, but they’re definitely going in the right direction.