Stewartry under-16s suffer defeat to Greenock Wanderers in season opener

Stewartry under-16s began the new season hosting Greenock at Greenlaw.

That Greenock came with a full squad and more practice under their belt with the Glasgow schools having returned earlier gave the Stewartry boys some concern, but the nerves were settled by two early scores.

Greenock were indisciplined and two penalties later, deep in Greenock’s 22, James Nelson won a strike against the head with assistance from a powerful drive from his two props Arthur Bolland and Carson McCallum, allowing Fraser Davis to stroll in unopposed from scrum half for the first try. The second was scored by Joe Hall who gassed his opposite number in the left-hand corner after a ghosting run by Oli Campbell had set him up with one to beat.

Greenock rallied and answered with three tries. Capitalising on Stewartry’s inability to hold on to the ball, they drove hard and straight, testing the Stewartry tackling, and finding holes in the unstructured Stewartry defence.

With Greenock leading by seven going into the second half they must have been quietly confident but Stewartry rallied. Chasing the kickoff, Stewartry pressured a turnover deep in the Greenock 22 and then Davis executed the standout skill of the match. Receiving a scrappy ball out on the right he spotted Hall standing wide on the left and a perfectly executed crossfield kick found Hall perfectly allowing him to catch and score with no one within 10 metres of him.

Unfortunately, this was undone by Stewartry trying to work a three man overlap but instead throwing an intercepted pass which allowed Greenock back into the match. Davis pulled this try back by a solo effort after Daniel Eakin Watt and Angus Valentine had pressured Greenock into a poor clearance kick, allowing