Strathmore Tournament

Montrose P4/5 and P6/7 teams put on a great display of rugby today at the Strathmore Tournament in Forfar. There were strong numbers for both teams and they continued to demonstrate the strong and skilled rugby that Montrose are keen to develop.

The P4/5s ended up unbeaten for the day and only just missed out on a place in the final. The P6/7s got off to great start with a convincing win against the Harlequins and showed fantastic commitment throughout the tournament.

As always, thanks to all of the coaches and parents who helped out.

Training with the Pro's

Well done to all of the players who went to the Scotland Training Camp in Dundee. The camp was held over three days and the focus was on the key skills of passing, running, tackling and support. Every player that attended the camp received a Scotland training jacket and have been sent a development action plan.

On the final day, players from Scotland's two professional rugby teams came along to support the session. As well as answering questions, they joined in the games!

Some of the Montrose players with Steve Swindall and Eric Milligan of Glasgow Warriors

The coaches commented on the Montrose players' skills, effort and politeness so thank you for being such good ambassadors for the club.

Training Cancelled Today

The icy wind looks set to bring snow shower throughout the morning. Therefore, it has been decided to cancel training today. See you all at training next week.

Old Kit

Kids have a very unfortunate habit of growing! Because of this, you can often have perfectly good rugby boots or training kit that are too small.

Please feel free to bring these along to training to offer to other parents. If you would like an email sent out or details put on the website, just send the size(s) and price you want to montroseminis@tiscali.co.uk .

Carnoustie Tournament

Well done to everyone who took part in the tournament at Carnoustie today. It was great to see such positive and aggressive rugby from all teams. The coaches also appreciated the spirit of rugby being displayed by those players who helped out other teams who were short of players.

The Micros played with real spirit and, despite a very small pitch, there was some good rugby played. Because of our strong squad, we provided players to Blairgowrie and Panmure. Thanks to all the players who volunteered and nobody needed to be asked – A real credit to Montrose.

The P4/5s had a fantastic day, only just losing out in the final to a very strong Panmure side. The effort from the players was phenomenal and all of the squad was needed to get through 4 tough matches. Player of the day goes to Kyle for his ‘raging bull’ runs up the pitch and aggressive defence.

The P4/5 team with their silver medals (Duncan R. missing)

The P6/7s played their usual battling rugby and despite some key players missing, they did very well in consecutive games against Carnoustie and Strathmore. “The best rugby I have seen the P6/7s play this year” was Les’ opinion. The entire team should be very proud of their efforts and player of the day for the P6/7s goes to Ross – a great performance, especially considering he only started playing rugby a couple of months ago.

As always, thanks to the parents and friends for coming along to support the teams.

This weekend

Here are the details for this weekend:

Micros
The tournament is going ahead this weekend (subject to the weather). We need as many micros as possible as we have been asked to enter two teams. Can you either be at Union Park for 9.50 or Forfar before 10.30? If any P1, P2 or P3 can’t make it, can you please let me know (01674 830763)?

P4/5s
Morgan no longer have any P4/5s so there will be no match for the P4/5s. We will have a training session instead. Please be at Union Park for a 10.00 start.

P6/7s
Morgan are bringing up 12 of the older age group and we will have a match and perhaps development session. Can all P6/7s be there for 10.00 (10.30 kick-off).

Easter Coaching Camps

The SRU pro teams are holding a rugby camp in Dundee from 9th to 11th April. The camp is for P5 to U16 and it is £55 for the 3 days, which seems good value.

If you are keen to go, send an email to Duncan (montroseminis@tiscali.co.uk) and he will forward an application form. If there are a number of players going down, we will try to coordinate lifts.

Training is on

Although it is frosty, the sun is strong. The ground has softened and the temperature in the sun is c. 6 degrees. We are going to go ahead with training but please wrap up.

See you at 10.00!

Rugby Kit in Montrose

Intersport on Murray Street in Montrose has a good selection of rugby stuff for adults and kids. These include rugby boots (many of which are in the sale), Canterbury thermals, rugby balls, gum shields…

New Fixtures for Micros

We have been asked to bring two Micros teams to the Strathmore tournament on March 9th and the micros have been invited to Carnoustie’s tournament the following Sunday (16th). More details will be issued nearer the time.