One thing that can always be said for Scone’s youngsters is that they show commitment and heart whenever they pull on the Brumbies jersey.

THE Scone boys made the car trip to Coonabarabran to play some rugby. The Barbarians team that is the usual stomping ground for the under-14s was unable to attend Coonabarabran so the Scone boys joined forces with other clubs to provide strength in numbers and improve those teams’ skills sets. Otis Bottomley played for Armidale and for Coonabarabran, Jack Teague played for Inverell and Jack Faulkner played for Narrabri. Being able to play in different teams provides the under-14s with experience under different coaches and the opportunity to learn and excel at different positions. Overall it was a great day of rugby and all the boys really enjoyed themselves.

THE Scone under-12s shot for the stars and came away with five wins from six games.

With a depleted squad, the 24 boys did not shirk the job and got on with what they had to do. 

Victories against Quirindi, Coonabarabran, Narrabri, Quirindi/Gunnedah and Brisbane Boys College saw the troops travel home exhausted but with a smile on their face. 

The game against Brisbane Boys College was a great experience for the boys as this is a large school who trains together twice a week. Our lads put up a good fight after being down 10-0 at half-time. The pleasing thing about this game was the fact the boys listened at the break and executed to a tee the revised game plan giving us a sneaky victory 12-10. Brisbane Boys College was too good for us at the break down stealing lots of our ball and putting us on the back foot in the first half. The second half saw us use the width of the oval bringing our backs into the game where we excelled.

All in all a great day with Josh Crowther, Hunter Ryan, Bailey Park, Max Patterson, Hamish White, Jimmy White, Bear Grills (Inverell import), Rourke Sharpe, Matty Edwards having great all round games. 

The speed of Roly Ward Thomas and Archie Martin was once again on show with some strong runs backed up by the ever-reliable Gussy Beard.

SCONE under-10s travelled with two strong sides to Coonabarabran on Sunday and the boys looked set to go from the beginning. Both teams are showing big signs of improvement and are really working hard on the areas we focus on at training. Consistency is now our key focus as the two teams showed on the weekend that they are more than capable of competing with any side in the competition – we just need to concentrate for the full match. At the end of the day we took away two wins from the six games played with some close results in the other matches. 

Both Evan and I would like to thank the parents and boys for making the trip and also big thank you to James Hannaford and Ben Officer for playing in both squads on Sunday. See you at training.

THE under-8s started the day against the Narrabri 1 team. The Narrabri side was much bigger then Scone but the boys stepped up their efforts under captain Angus Giblin. A narrow defeat was not a bad result given the difference in size. 

The next game was against Quirindi who are consistently one of the best teams in the competition. Again a narrow defeat was the result but not due to lack of effort from the Scone boys. 

The final match was against Moree, traditional powerhouse team of Central North Rugby. The Scone boys went into the match not happy with their earlier results and with a renewed commitment to tackling and phase play. They delivered on these commitments to bring home a 6-3 win to the jubilation of parents and players alike. All of the boys continue to improve each week and there were some significant achievements on Sunday.

Seb Comerford made some great tackles including a trysaver on Narrabri’s biggest player, a kid born where meat is cheap. Henry “The Burglar” Teague toiled all day with great tackling, cleaning out and ball stealing. He topped his day with a five try effort against Moree where Rory Moore also scored. Ollie Hannaford also stepped up with some great front on tackling on bigger boys. Sam Schofield was strong over the ball and used a good palm to great effect.

Archie Teague was elusive and found his way to the tryline, sometimes running further to get there than any kid ever has before. 

Captain Angus Giblin scored and was well-supported by brother Bill Giblin, who has stepped up every game and plays well above his weight. Thomas Dart lived up to his surname with some great runs as well as important tackles. Edo Dawson made sure of ball security on his runs and got away a great pass that lead to a try against Moree.

In all it was great to see the boys really using phase play and backing each other up.

All games were relatively low scoring which is unusual in under-8s and testimony to improved technique and attitude in defence.