Sport Update: Week ending 5 December

Netball

On Tuesday after school S2 Netball took to the court against Albyn in the first of their Scottish Cup Games. This was a game of two halves which saw the girls battle to an equally well-deserved draw. There were some lovely passages of play, but also a few things to work on before next week’s second round meeting with Gordonstoun.

On Saturday morning Miss Duddy and Mrs Armstrong took the P7 Netball team to a Netball Festival arranged by Albyn School at the Beach Leisure Centre. Lathallan unfortunately couldn’t attend so the girls played two games against Albyn and two against St Margaret’s. Our P7s really stepped up and played some fantastic Netball. They gave their all on court and really enjoyed the opportunity to play, with several of them asking when the next event was going to be! 

Aside from having fun, Miss Duddy and Mrs Armstrong asked the girls to have strong arms over the ball and they all made a real effort to do that, winning lots of the ball as a result. The P7s have really developed their skills over this term and their smiles and laughter on the day said it all. It was also fantastic that the parents were able to spectate and they loved being able to support the team. 

Rugby

It was great to welcome Highland Rugby Club to Countesswells on Saturday for our Primary matches after our senior school games with them in November were cancelled. P6s won both their games convincingly with the boys stepping up and playing to the conditions. P7s played two competitive matches with both sides showing a willingness to attack but a hesitancy to tackle. Highland were a pleasure to host and a much welcomed addition to the fixture list.

For our senior school teams, the opposition was the Queen Victoria School, Dunblane and Deeside RFC for the 2nd XV. In the S1A away match, QVS scored first so the boys had to recover from an early try and impose their game on some strong running opponents. RGC moved the ball well to the strike runners and scored some impressive team tries. Improving defence and sensible clearance kicks from our 22 meant that we were always able to relieve pressure on our line. Better structure and understanding from RGC was the backbone to this win. There was also an away win for S2A who got the balance just right between trying to go round their opponents or through them. They did well in attack and the tackling and ruck turnovers were good as QVS had a couple of strong boys. The conditions were quite wet and cold so the team did well to stick to their plans. S3A managed to play a slightly more expansive game to secure their away win, but overall it was not their best performance. A number of handling errors and lack of depth prevented us from scoring on a number of occasions. We were very well hosted by QVS and had an enjoyable day.

Back at Countesswells S4 won against a spirited QVS team. Both sides struggled to adapt to the conditions in the first 25 minutes but we started keeping a hold of the ball better and some nice support play led to us dominating the next 30 minutes as we raced to a strong lead with ten minutes to go. At this point QVS had unfortunately lost a few players to injury and so we matched their player numbers. With 13 on the pitch QVS finished strongly and scored a couple tries. Well done to the RGC boys for adjusting to the conditions and scoring some nice tries. The 1st XV played a Conference match at home against QVS, with the visitors winning the match.

2XV faced a tough Deeside 1st XV in their home match. They started slowly, losing three tries to one in the first half, but came back strong in the second, using the wind to great effect to keep Deeside pinned largely in their own half and forcing errors. Much improved physicality allowed the boys to dominate the contact area and secure a hard fought victory, even though they were reduced to 14 men. 

Skiing

This week saw the return of the Scottish Schools Snowsports Association Indoor Ski and Boarder Cross Championships at Braehead, Glasgow. On Tuesday a team of eight pupils from the Junior School took to the slopes with some excellent times being recorded. Our teams placed sixth and seventh out of a total of 34 teams. It was the turn of the Senior School the following day where three teams of four racers represented RGC. Mrs Melville and Mrs MacLeod were delighted for our S4-6 team who were placed second overall, S1-3 team came fourth and the C team came fifteenth, out of the 33 teams competing. Individually, Daisy C received the first place gold medal in the S4-S6 girls category and Grant M was placed second in the S4-S6 boys category. 

Congratulations to all our Junior and Senior School ski racers on a very successful couple of days.

Team of the Week

This week the award goes to the 2XV who played a tough game of rugby against Deeside 1XV at Countesswells. The boys showed resilience coming back from a first half loss and gave an impressive team performance in difficult conditions.

For a full breakdown of this week’s results, please click here.

Sporting Achievements out with RGC 

Congratulations to Emma S (S2) who represented U15 Scottish Schools Football Association North Region against South & South East last weekend. 

Well done to Sophie K (S2) who’s been selected to join the Scottish Performance Sailing Team. Sophie recently changed sailing class and is progressing extremely well in her new boat.

These are fantastic achievements, well done to both pupils.