Co-Curricular

It was great to get started again with our co-curricular programme, and this first full week back at school saw the return of Rugby, Hockey, Netball, Senior Football and badminton clubs. We will be back to our full schedule of sports co-curricular by the end of next week. 

Rugby

On Saturday morning it was exciting to have our first rugby fixtures of the season and a challenging one at that with High School of Dundee. Players from P6-S6 took to the field  with some travelling down to the Mayfield pitches in Dundee.

The P6 team played some exciting rugby under the watchful eye of Mr Hardie. With his tutelage they managed to improve their passing in attack and structure in defence. This was a positive start to the season. P7 fielded two teams against Dundee with 24 boys in total. Both games were fiercely contested and the boys showed a willingness to attack in the wider channels. Their individual tackle technique on the whole was strong so there are lots of strengths to build on and learnings to take into next week.

S1 fielded two teams to Dundee’s one so a great level of participation from RGC with both teams playing a half each. It took a while for the boys to settle as Dundee had a couple of agile runners who scored some early tries. RGC fired back with some big ball carries and began to have more options in attack. It was a win for Dundee but with lots of high quality moments from RGC to build on. 

In the S2A game, the opposition had two big players who we found difficult to handle and they scored 7 of their 9 tries. We lacked a bit of bite, intensity and aggression but despite the loss, there were lots of positives to take forward. S2B lost to a more physical and quicker Dundee side. The boys were much improved in the 2nd half and we were unlucky not to score.  

S3s put in a performance full of effort against a strong Dundee High team. Although losing 5 tries to 1 this didn’t really reflect the tightness of the game as both teams had a few periods of dominance. We defended well for big chunks of the match, but the most impressive thing was that we kept fighting to the final whistle and scored a well deserved try at the end following multiple phases of sustained pressure and composure.

The U16 match produced a slow first half where RGC gave away some cheap scores. The boys looked like a different side in the 2nd half but couldn’t quite claw it back. They showed much better aggression, intensity and go forward with the ball. This was a good platform to build on going into Heriot’s next week.

There was a great show of support in the Grandstand for the 1st XV debut this season and the crowd were treated to a close and exciting match. Trailing by 10 points and after a player-led half time talk, the boys came back onto the pitch and made some real progress in the 2nd half, showing real grit and determination to come back and win by 2 points. Man of the Match was Joe R whose late try helped RGC clinch the win.

Girls Hockey

There were no external fixtures for the girls this week so it was a valuable opportunity to test themselves in some internal games, with the team selection process nearing its completion. 

Boys Hockey

A young Senior Boys 1st XI team were away to Aberdeen Grammar in an entertaining, end to end match. With limited pitch time, the performance improved with each quarter, with the team playing more controlled and fluid hockey. The boys lost the match and although the result wasn't what was hoped for, there were many individual performances of note, especially from players playing their first senior game. With more time on the pitch, hopefully the senior squads can have positive performances throughout the season.

A mixed experience S1-3 boys team defeated a very competitive Aberdeen Grammar side. The first half was somewhat mixed with both sides still rusty after the holidays, consequently the scores were drawn at the half time whistle. As the game progressed into the second half the quality of the RGC Development Team was too much for Grammar to handle and an extended period of dominance resulted in 4 more goals. A late consolation goal from Grammar made the final score 5-2. 

Netball

S1 Netball were up early on Saturday to hit the court at 8am for a shooting skills and matchplay session. Miss Stephen and Miss Duddy were delighted to hear the girls saying how much they enjoyed themselves.

Team of the Week

As we start the new year our first TOTW is the 1st XV Rugby. A great comeback win in a game that was end to end, with RGC clinching victory in the final minutes. 

Sports Achievements from Outside School

Congratulations to the following pupils who represented Scotland at last weekend’s School Games at Loughborough University:

Angela M-K (S6): Athletics field events

Anna W (S5): Hockey

Emma J & Ellis R (both S3): Pentathlon

In addition, former pupils Craig D and Tommasso G represented Scotland at hockey.

Well done to all these pupils.