Rugby: Currie coach praises his young charges

CURRIE coach Mike McWilliam has underlined the club's strength in depth at Under-15 level by admitting to a selection headache for yesterday's National Cup final on the international pitch at Murrayfield.

McWiliam watched his charges land the silverware when they saw off West of Scotland 24-7 and, reflecting on a fine performance that was worthy of the occasion, he said: "I've been coaching a lot of these players since P3 and we've attracted a lot of others as well. They have developed and there are some very talented boys in that outfit.

"The biggest difficulty for me is actually picking a team. We put our subs on and there were others that could have made it into the 22."

Of the squad that did make the final cut, there were many fine performances including a man-of-the-match contribution from Duncan Swanson. The scrum-half touched down twice in the first half, with Alexander Swan adding each of the conversions as Currie reached the break with a 14-7 advantage – Angus Burns scoring a self converted try for West.

Further scores from Matt Flett and Nick Pert secured the win and had McWilliam hailing the success.

He added: "It was a super match – end to end. Both teams could have won it but we maybe had a bit more composure, spun the ball wide and I think over the piece we were slightly the better team.

"The crowd were fantastic. We had great support from Currie and all the surrounding districts. That means a lot to the boys and it means an awful lot to the club. It's a community club."

The Under-16 final featured a clinical display by a well-drilled Stirling County side that saw off Boroughmuir 41-7.

The Meggetland youngsters battled gamely and there were spirited performances, particularly by scrum-half Alex Webb, but Boroughmuir failed to combine as a team in the same manner as their opponents.

Stirling had the game won by half-time, with Stephen Gillies touching down twice, while Joel Fuentes and Adam Tunaley had one score apiece and Jack Urquhart was on target with two conversions. Urquhart kicked a penalty, converted a try from Brodie Clark then bagged a try and added the conversion.

But 'Muir battled throughout the match and earned a last-ditch consolation when Claude Millee raced down the right flank for a try converted by Alistair Fraser.