Under 18s learn more about the Shogun conference.

Second week of the Shogun conference and the Under 18s had a number of targeted items on the game plan to improve on from last week’s game against Biggar.

Top of the agenda was game preparation and the merits of hydrating and fuelling properly for the game. This certainly appeared to be better and by the end of the game it was obvious that that had been done correctly, as it could be argued that the team finished stronger than the opposition even although they were down to thirteen players for the last twenty minutes, holding the opposition at bay for that entire period.

With the players asked to apply more pressure in defence the line press certainly improved but too many players then got caught on their heals in the tackle and there were a lot of missed tackles, that put the pressure on the scoreboard. Unfortunately that meant that despite long periods of possession and good territory, mistakes allowed West of Scotland to work well on the break and the score board was perhaps unfairly showing Hamilton down two tries to four at the half.

The squad, depleted in numbers by several injuries and a lot of unavailability, started the second half with the remaining fifteen players on the pitch. West did capitalise at this period and scored several tries, to Hamilton’s one try, in what was a difficult time for the Hamilton defence. The effort continued to be 100% and the team produced the best scrum performance of the season so far, forcing West to make changes in a vain attempt to halt the domination by the Hamilton pack.

In rugby it is important that you leave everything on the park and do not walk off thinking that you could have tried harder. This team certainly did that and finishing with thirteen players they still managed to produce a fifteen man performance.

Thanks once again for a great support, our kitchen helpers and pitch side photographers. Thanks also to the ref and our opposition for a great game of rugby.