For rugby it was a case of what could have been.

When we arrived at Garioch it was a surprise to see there was still a consideration to have a game of contact rugby on the Garioch pitch.
Previous games and freezing conditions over night left the pitches with more mud than grass, more studs marks than flat ground, crumbs of soil as hard as stones.

So it became a quick decision not to play a full contact game but to the credit to the Garioch Coaches and Referee they came up with the option to get the boys a full game of rugby.

The variation was a full rugby league style touch game:

• 5 touch then kick / last play.
• Five man scrums uncontested
• The rest as full u14 rugby AGLV’s.

It was played over 2x20min halves with the fast pace of the game meaning the boys were pretty knackered come the end of the game.
It was a decent watch and the good news was Ellon won 21-0 as the boys skills and communication adapted much better to the game than Garioch.

In the end it was a worthwhile run out despite not getting the opportunity to fully the avenge the early season defeat.