Scottish Schools Cup - U16 Shield, Plate and Bowl Finals

Borders sides, Earlston and Hawick, took the victories while Auchinleck also triumphed in an action-packed match that had spectators roaring on the sidelines.

Shield | Earlston High School 58 – 0 Marr College

Earlston High School put in a ten try performance to push passed a spirited Marr College in the Scottish Schools Shield match today.

The Borderers breezed through their previous round to set up the Shield final and looked impressive in the first half to build a strong lead that Marr could not recover.

Four tries in the first period from Trystan Andrews, Callum Folan, Matthew Bertram and Ross Lile made the Borders school look comfortable at the break.

Marr rallied after the break and it took some time before Earlston were able to break down their defence.

However, the close range tries from the first half turned to rangier efforts as Marr began to tire and Earlston back to exploit the space.

A second half hat-trick from Ross Lile took his personal tally to four and with other scores from Nick Henderson, Roly Brett and a second for Andrews, Earlston claimed the silverware 58-0.

Earlston’s Keiran Clark took the player of the match for his ambitious attacking play and excellent performance from the tee in challenging conditions.

Plate | Royal High School 5 – 22 Hawick High School

Hawick High School won a closely fought match against Royal High to claim the U16’s School Plate Final at BT Murrayfield today.

In strong winds the Borders side scored three tries in quick succession through scrum half Ben Scott either side of half-time to put an unassailable points advantage in place over their Edinburgh opponents.

The Hawick nine controlled the match well alongside his half-back partner, and Player of the Match, fly-half Charlie Welsh who kicked intelligently with the wind in the second half to keep Royal High pinned in their own half.

Royal High started the match well and despite going 0-7 down after four minutes scored themselves through hooker Justin Akugbo who also had a try disallowed shortly afterwards for a foot in touch with the scores at 7-5.

Both sides played ran the ball whenever possible mixed in with powerful forward play, with Royal High captain Fraser McAslan carrying well and strong running lines from the Hawick centres, Elliot Stanger and Adamo Antonacci.

Rhys Tait at number 8 for Hawick opened the scoring with a powerful run only for Royal High to respond on 19 minutes.

Hawick captain Scott scored the first of his hat-trick on 30 minutes and grabbed his other scores on 45 and 47 minutes respectively. Welsh slotted one conversion, hitting the post twice and missing another to give a final score of 22-7.

Bowl | Oban High School 21 – 24 Auchinleck Academy

Auchinleck Academy, one of the CashBack Schools of Rugby, took victory against Oban High School in a closely contested west coast derby, winning the U16 Schools Bowl Final at BT Murrayfield.

After a tense first-half where neither team gave much quarter, momentum built in the second-half and final tally of eight tries from seven different players showed both teams’ determination to keep pushing until the final minute.

Showing good skills in blustery conditions, Oban put the first points on the board with a penalty from Angus Neil. A fine try from Finbar Dunne increased the score to 8-0 and the game lit up when Auchinleck’s Jamie Drummond scoring their first try and Ross Watson converted (8-7).

After half-time it was all to play for and Auchinleck made a strong start to the second half, with Kevin Van Der Leest scoring a try and Watson again converting to take the score to 8-14. Equally matched in the set pieces, it was difficult to predict which was the game would go, but Oban capitalised when Auchinleck went down to 14 players following a yellow card for their number 8. Tries for Finbar Dunne and Tommy McQuade let Oban stretch the lead (18-14).

With less than ten minutes to go both teams dug in and with Auchinleck back to 15 players the balance switched once more with Lewis Young getting over the line (18-19). Minutes later Oban were awarded a penalty kick and Ellis Hunter kept his cool to send the ball over the posts (21-19).

As the minutes ticked down Auchinleck gave one final surge with Jamie Drummond getting over the line to finalise the score at 21-24. Player of the Match was Auchinleck’s fly-half Andrew Houston for some fine decision-making in testing conditions.