Primary Seven Match Reports  
 

Grammar Tournament 23/05/04

Ellon RFC’s P4-P7 teams ended their season in fine form when the brought back a winners’ trophy and two runners-up placements from the annual Aberdeen Grammar tournament.

This was Ellon’s last fixture of the packed 2003 / 2004 season and the P4 prizewinning effort and the successes at P5 and P6 level were just reward for the year-long efforts of the players and coaches.

The Sunday outing followed the end of season awards ceremony which took place at the Meadows last Saturday.

Ellon 6 Banff 1

The first few moves by both teams broke down due to handling errors.  Ellon  won possession from the third scrum and fed the ball through to Andrew Ovenstone who ran in his first try of the afternoon.  From the restart, good tackling by Keith Ross and Shaun Marr saw Ellon regain the ball giving Ovenstone the chance to run in a second try. Derek Gault then made a determined run up the pitch with David Evans in close support, the ball was passed to Craig Peet who used his pace to get over the third try.  From the restart Banff caught Ellon flat footed and ran straight through to score.  Ellon then outplayed Banff and Ovenstone was able to run in a further 3 tries.

Ellon  2   Grammar(1)   2

The Grammar team started the better of the two teams and had Ellon defending on their 5 metre line for the first few minutes.  Grammar's pressure paid off and they got in for the first try following a scrum. From the restart the Ellon forwards were able to drive up into the Grammar half and James Halmshaw opened a gap to let Peet in to score.  Grammar went straight back into the lead after some loose tackling by Ellon.  There then followed some very closely contested end to end rugby and it was Ryan Turnbull who managed to get in to the corner to score Ellon's second.  This was a very good game by two very evenly matched teams.

Ellon   3   Aberdeenshire/Huntly 2

There was very scrappy play at the start of this game with Ellon's passing being very loose and tackles being missed.  Ellon were awarded a penalty 10m from the line and with a big push from Derek Gault and David Evans, Ross was able to get the ball over for the first try.   Aberdeenshire/Huntly were straight back in the game and scored an easy try, after some more hard work Jamie Cochrane got a pass to Ovenstone who evaded a couple of tackles for Ellon's second try.  Aberdeenshire/Huntly then scored straight from the restart and just before the end Turnbull got the winner for Ellon.

Ellon  2   Grammar (2)   1

This turned out to be another very evenly contested match.  The Ellon forwards tried to drive up the pitch with Cochrane trying to get the ball out to the wingers.  Ellon were able to get the first two tries, both scored by Ovenstone when he was able to make     room on the left wing and use his speed to get the ball over the line.  Grammar did not give up and were rewarded with a try two minutes from the end.

Ellon   0  Howe of Fife  5 

Howe started this game at a furious pace and drove Ellon straight back onto their line.  Ellon defended desperately but Howe had a couple of very quick players and Ellon were soon down by three tries.  But this Ellon team never let their heads go down and they took the game up into the Howe half but they were caught on the break a further twice before the end.

Ellon  3  Mackie   2

The final game of the day against Mackie was the decider for runners-up spot.  Ellon were first to score with a big push up the middle and the ball quickly passed out for the winger to score.  Mackie then had a good drive and they got in to equalise,  Ellon got the next two tries, although Mackie defended well it was sheer pressure from Ellon that opened the gaps.  Mackie did not give up and they got the last score of the day. 

This was a very  good finish to the season, with the team improving as time went on.

Due to  other commitments Ellon just had 9 players today and we would like to thank the other teams who loaned us players throughout the Tournament.

P7 Team:- Jamie Cochrane, David Evans, Derek Gault, James Halmshaw, Shaun Marr, Andrew Ovenstone, Craig Peet, Keith Ross and Ryan Turnbull.

The coaches would like to thank the players for their commitment and the strength of character they showed even when things were not going their way earlier in the season