On a dull, damp, dreary Sunday afternoon at Dumbreck shone a light of talent and flare as the Cartha Under 16 boys took on Dumfries Saints for their first home league match of the season, in what ended up dreadful rugby playing conditions. After the first three dry minutes of the game, the rain did not stop for anything the whole day as Dumfries came to Dumbreck to show why they got to the final of the U15’s West Cup last year.

The first 5 minutes of the game saw the visitors testing the home side forwards as both teams sent the packs at each other to test for weaknesses. With Cartha standing firm and immense pressing in defence on the visitors to keep them deep in their own half, Dumfries eventually ended up with a scrum in their own 22 due to a knock on by the boys. As the Dumfries backs tried to move the ball up field with some phase play with their forwards, to get away from the danger zone, Alex Geddes spotted the slow support from the visitors enabling him to get his hands all over the ball in a ruck winning Cartha a penalty 15 metres from the line for not releasing. With the forwards wanting to take the ball on from the penalty, everyone expected the safer kick to touch, but stand-off David McCartney taking control saw the chance and space out wide, sparked his backs into action throwing a huge miss pass from his quick tap penalty to Christopher Elliot who showed the dummy then good foot work in the slippery condition to hand off the covering defence to slide over for the try making the score 5-0 after 7 minutes.

David stepped up for the conversation, splitting the uprights to bring the score to 7 v 0 Cartha.

Straight away from the restart Cartha gives the ball back to the visitors for accidental obstruction on their own 10 metre line in the middle of the park. From the Dumfries scrum creaking under the Cartha pressure and with the defence split, the visiting scrum half did very well to get the ball quickly out to the backs. Good quick handling from the Dumfries backline out to their speedy winger sees him with a bit of fancy foot work spotting the Cartha winger out of position enabling him to get around the Cartha defence and evading the covering full back Ewan McKinnon to run in the try close to the post for an easy conversation to level the match at 7 v 7.

It was Dumfries's turn this time to give the ball back, as straight from the re-start from a great high kick from David, creating confusion with the visitors on who was gathering the ball. This allowed Cian, Matthew and Cameron to maul the eventual ball carrier backwards allowing Alex to pounce on the spilled ball to secure a good turn over with Dylan protecting him on the ground. From the following phase play Chris then Rory then Aidan were all stopped short of the line with some good defence by the visitors resulting in a scrum 10 metres out in front of the post. On the 12th minute from this scrum Cartha had thought they had regained the lead from a cleverly planned backs move from behind the scrum. Unfortunately, Chris was deemed to have been held up over the line by the ref.

Although the boys endeavoured to play a high tempo, fast flowing match, the poor slippy conditions kept intervening to keep it a stop start affair.

20 minutes into the match with the home side continuously keeping the pressure on Dumfries once again saw the visitors try to break loose from the Cartha grip. With the referee awarding a scrum to visitors just inside their 22, the visiting scrum half feeds the Dumfries scrum, the Cartha hooker Dylan Briscoe ceases the opportunity with a superb strike against the head straight back to the back row to control. Quick hands on the turn-over ball from the fly half and outside half David and Aidan saw Chris and the rest of the backs bearing down towards the try line. Chris Elliot seeing the smallest of gaps in the Dumfries defence powered towards the try line and with 3 men trying to take him down, showed great determined and leg drive to cross the line and score his second try putting Cartha back in the lead 12 v 7.

With another good contact on the conversion from David, sees him bringing the score to 14 v 7.

With the first half nearing its conclusion, Cartha imposing themselves more and more onto the visitors but the manful Dumfries defence, with the aid of the condition, seemed determined to keep the home side from scoring before half time. Cartha were awarded a scrum on the Dumfries 5 metre line 15 metres in from touch. David and Chris quickly change the attack blind but where quickly cut down by some good defence from the visitors. However great support from the Cartha pack saw them drive towards the line only to be stopped short but spotting the gap with quick thinking allowed Cameron McKenzie to pick and dive over the line making the score 19-7 to Cartha. With the conditions getting worse the ball was getting wetter and harder to control.

Half Time Score - Cartha QP 19 v 7 Dumfries

5 minutes into the second half from good phase play between backs and forwards Cartha work their way down into the visitors 22 from the initial scrum on half way. A poor clearing kick from a Dumfries line out allowed winger Hasib Mohammed to show his pace by evading two defenders and handing off a third, to set up a ruck deep in the visitors 22. Following good quick rucking, scrum half Scott Heasley spots Christopher Elliot hitting a good hard running line back against the grain, then stepping back out again after breaking the defensive line creating space for himself to burst through heading for the line and what looked to be his hat-trick, only to spill the ball backwards by the desperate flailing hand of the Dumfries full back. Support was on hand as David dived on the ball to secure and set up a ruck. With a good quick clear out by Roddy, Matthew and Daniel scullion right in front of the posts this allowed Ewan in support to pick the ball up and dive for the line unopposed and stretch the Cartha lead to 24 v 7.

With an easy kick for David in front of the posts, the score now stands at 26 v 7.

With the relentless rain from the beginning of the match the conditions were now starting to affect the quality of the game, even though both sides continued to try to play flowing rugby. Dumfries then had undoubtedly their best 20-minute period of the game where they through everything at the Cartha defence which unfortunately for the visitors held strong and true not conceding anything.

Dumfries heart eventually sank as they tried to pressure the Cartha 22, but good defence in the tackle saw the visitor spill the ball for a Cartha scrum deep in their own 22. As quickly as the visitors had entered the Cartha 22 saw them defending their own 22 as from the solid Cartha scrum saw stand-off David McCartney feed inside centre Aidan Mair who carried the ball through the visiting defence and on beyond the home 22 to feed fellow centre Chris Elliot taking the ball to the half way to supporting scrum-half Oscar McCallum speeding down to just outside the visitors 22 supported by Spencer King the ball is quickly recovered by the advancing Cartha forwards down to the five metre line with the forwards setting up controlled phase after phase till eventually Oscar McCallum picks and snipes round the ruck and dives for the line but is called up short where the try is disallowed, giving Dumfries the penalty and allowing them to clear their lines. From the following lineout Dumfries fumble their own ball with Rory McMullen being quickest to react as he is first to ground to get the ball. Oscar quickly feeds Roddy Colquhoun who is on the charge with Cameron McKenzie latched onto him helps pushing him along making 20 meters for Roddy to dive over the line for the try to take the score to 31-7.

Once again with the post in his sights, David slots the ball home for the conversion bringing the game to 33 v 7.

Dumfries fought valiantly to try and keep themselves in the game, but the Cartha U16 boys with their power, pace and courage of good handled in poor, poor condition ultimately could control what they wanted to do in the game.

Final Score - Cartha QP 33 v 7 Dumfries