Stewartry triumph in colts sevens tournament at Greenlaw

As the 15-a-side season spluttered to a close, Stewartry coach David Nelson organised a Colts Sevens Tournament at the Greenlaw, last played in the 1990s.

Teams from Wigtownshire, Ardrossan, Moffat, Dumfries Saints, Biggar and Annan all turned up, full of hope of winning the revived Niven Plate sponsored by TP Niven.

The Stewartry team, with their talisman Fraser Davies on the touchline, due to Glasgow commitments, were captained by Arthur Bolland.

Against Wigtownshire they ran out 22-0 winners with two tries from Joe Hall and one from Lewis Morrow.

Then came Ardrossan and Stewartry ran in five tries to two with Hall scoring another brace alongside Oliver Campbell’s two. Morrow scored another and James Nelson joined the ranks of try scorers with a quick tap and go. Notably, Jamie McIvor was tackling anything that moved and two of his tackles caused turnovers which led to scores.

In the last of the pool matches, Stewartry had to work harder against a forceful Moffat side who scored three tries, however, with Stewartry scoring five, including a splendid solo effort by Daniel Eakin Watt, their position as pool winners was secure.

This meant that after three matches to decide the minor placings, Stewartry met Dumfries Saints in the final. This match is something of a local derby but relatively rare as Dumfries can field a full U16 side rather than the combined U15/U16 Stewartry side and so tend to be in different SRU leagues.

This was always going to be close, and so it proved. Nelson scored first for Stewartry – probably the best try of the tournament. It started with a ruck turnover by Bolland, then going eight phases, including some great handling, before Nelson went over under the post. Morrow was rewarded