Huntly came to the Meadows looking forward to a good rugby learning experience in the knowledge they are a developing under 13/14 collective.

The coaching team understood there would be developmental element to this match so the team was switched up positionally with new back row set-up ( Lucas & Xavier) working in conjunction with a 1/2 back combination (Quentin & Hamish) as well as new centre combination (Fletcher & Stewart). Final piece of the development jigsaw was taken with a new designated kicker in Stewart.

On request from Huntly we played 3x20mins to allow better options for them to work with their team.
Not long into the second 20 the score line in favour of Ellon put the game to development.

David (Huntly Head Coach) and myself then discussed ways to give the players an experience to learn from the game time, this brought in:-

• Tap and go restarts for Huntly no matter who scored.
• Ellon constraint their play - forcing number of phase plays.
• Ellon using the full width, forcing number of passes.

We continued to play with these conditions through the final 2x20minute periods, with David feeling his team continued to learn from the experience in terms of better tackling so we played the full 60 minutes.

Despite Ellon winning Huntly very much appreciated the game time and set-up to develop their squad.

The changes in team set-up has given the Ellon Coaches some food for thought with a special mention for Stewart taking on full kicking duties for the first time. His team mates really appreciated his high success rate and watching coaches noted his easy languid kicking style - looks like a rough diamond may have been found.

Well done Stewart and the whole squad it is not easy being asked to temper your game to try to develop different aspects of your own play when there are open spaces to play through.

Quarter finals next - Sunday March 2nd.

Thanks for the support and see you all there, where ever it may be.