Scots 17 - Joeys 32
Some thoughts (and identifying the players only from the programmes)
• The score was about right and so was the 4 tries to 2 ratio.
• The Joeys team is very young. Was told that 9 of their players yesterday will be back next year and of those 3 are U/16 qualified.
• Scots backs looked good from set pieces but lacked cohesion at other times. Some of their passing and receiving was poor and at times one expected them to drop the ball after a few passes and they did.
• For Scots I liked workhorse 8. Miller, tough 12. Horwitz and ball runner 7. Walters. 10. Bryant put a couple of sneaky grubbers through which would have troubled Joeys with a bit more luck, and 9. Boileau showed an exceptional pass for a schoolboy, both ways.
• One of Joeys best was 15. Le Lievre, as one would expect. It is not Joeys style but the booming boot of Gus should be employed more from his own half in the future. I understand that the Joey's scrummie is really a flyhalf and indeed his passing from the deck was problematic. When Curtin came on after oranges things flowed better.
• Joeys ball work was tidier than that of Scots and the interplay of their outside backs in turning breaks into tries looked like the work of older players. Their two wingers look promising: 11. Hookey may have to play a bit more directly but he has a lovely swerve and offloads with mature timing. 14. Wilde looks very quick and predatory; so we will watch this space.
• As usual, the Joeys pack is more blue heeler than big dog but at least their tight five is older than the rest of the team. They held the scrums on their own put in most of the time, but the lineout needs a bit more work.
Twos
Scots 14 - Joeys 34
• The score was about right in this game too. Signs are that Joeys has a good Twos team this year, like last. 7. Watts, 9. Curtin and 12. McCarthy looked like they wouldn't be out of place in the Ones; in fact Curtin played for most of the 2nd half in the later game.
