VICTORY FOR COMBINED AGE-GRADE XV
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Date Posted: 30-Mar-05

The Combined Districts Development (age-grade) XV, made up of players on the fringes of the national under-18 and under-19 sides, beat London Scottish 27-12 last night at Bridgehaugh, Stirling.

The five tries to two victory was very encouraging for coaches Richie Gray, Colin Robertson and Phil Smith as it provided players not involved in the U18 Home Unions Tournament in Wales, the FIRA/AER Championship in France (U18A) or the IRB U19 World Championship in South Africa a further opportunity to demonstrate their ability in a competitive fixture.

Richie Gray said: “Games like this at the end of the season give us an opportunity to have a further look at talented players who have been involved in the age-grade programme but have just missed out on international honours.

“There were definitely players on show last night who put their hands up and we’ll be keeping a close eye on them over the coming months. On behalf of the coaches, I’d like to thank the boys for the hard work and effort they put in to this game,” he added.

The Combined XV opened the scoring as powerful Alloa centre Robert Truesdale bagged the first of the five home tries after 20 minutes. Edinburgh Academicals’ winger Matthew Couper followed 11 minutes later to take his side 10-0 up.

Gala lock Chris Weir, younger brother of Scotland and British Lions’ lock Doddie, touched down for the third try just three minutes later before London Scottish opened their account with a try from stand-off Rory Damant, which he also converted, on the stroke of half time.

London Scottish closed the gap further with a try from George Shipman to bring the score back to 15-12. The home side reacted well, scoring their fourth try through inside centre Pete Saunders from Perthshire. The final nail in the visitors’ coffin came as Stirling County winger Ross Aitken converted his own try to take the victory 27-12.

COMBINED DISTRICTS DEVELOPMENT XV: Greg Sinclair (Allan Glen’s); Matthew Couper (Edinburgh Academicals), Robert Truesdale (Alloa), Pete Saunders (Perthshire), Ross Aitken (Stirling County); Alan Robertson (Stirling County), Mike Campbell (Stirling County); John Donaldson (Stirling County), Steve Gray (Watsonians), Joe Stafford (Hillhead/Jordanhill), Neil Longwell (Hillhead/Jordanhill), Chris Weir (Gala), Patrick Couper (Perthshire), Murray Wiseman (Glasgow Hawks), Donald Sangster (Currie)
Substitutes: Darren Beattie (East Kilbride), Graham Lindsay (Stirling County), Craig Black (Stirling County)

This article was posted on 30-Mar-2005, 09:56 by Hugh Barrow.