Sensational display from the Bulls

Another early start on the road saw the Bulls travelling through to a cold and wet Cumnock where we were met with the impressive looking new artificial pitches that have been installed since our last visit.

Recently we have engaged with a higher tempo and more physical warm up. The team were quickly put through their paces and had a small contact game amongst themselves. This allows them to get into the game mentality and raises the physicality to match levels.

It certainly seemed to work as the first play of the day saw Ben dotting down for the first try seconds after we had begun. Cumnock got back into the game, but the Bulls were always threatening going forwards and showed great support for each other. There was plenty of communication on the pitch and everyone calling for the ball and looking to do their part for the team. There was a small period where Cumnock were finding easy channels down the wings as we weren’t filling the field, but come midway through the second half a more defensive mindset kicked in and some crunching tackles came in. The Bulls had highlighted this themselves, and altered their tactics at the restarts, tightened up their defence while still being dangerous in attack. A fantastic game to watch and the team came off filled with confidence and looking forward to facing West next.

Very swiftly, the Bulls were back on the pitch and raring to go. Again they looked sharp and played as as a unit helping each other out and providing support. We won quite a few turnovers as the rucking was outstanding and made good use of our attacking opportunities. We had a higher than normal stoppages for knocks and players were swapping on and off with some regularity. It was great to see how eager they were to get back on to the pitch to compete again if they had been subbed. They had a belief in themselves that was evident from the sidelines and even after the game had finished were asking for another team they could play.

We still have areas we can improve on, such as tackling, but they stepped up to a new level this weekend. It’s days like this that you remember why you volunteered to coach. The joy on their faces as they came off, the respect being instilled in them for opponents and rugby values they can transfer to other aspects of life make it all worth while.

Thanks to yourselves for getting up early to bring them to remote corners of Scotland in such lovely weather. We appreciate the effort the parents put in as much as the players.

CAPTAINS COMMENTS

Our captain this week was Matthew, who led his team fantastically. He had this to say about the weekend.

I am really proud of the team and thought that our performance against Cumnock was the best we have ever played together. I thought the restarts were especially good and that we also supported each other well.