It has been an incredibly busy week of Sport with fixtures all across the week along with a very busy Saturday and more rugby on Sunday.

Football

The Senior boys continued their journey in the Scottish Cup against Fife opposition, Levenmouth Academy on Tuesday afternoon. It was a well contested game against a strong and well organised opponent. Levenmouth had the majority of possession, but it was RGC who looked the most dangerous in attack. We went 2-0 up early in the second half; however, a late goal for Levenmouth ensured a nervy ending. Our defending to finish the game was exceptional, with special mention going to goalkeeper Hamish, who reached out to tip a well struck free kick wide of the post with the score at 2-1 and little time remaining - save of the season, so far. A home tie awaits in the last 16 of the Scottish Cup!

Athletics

RGC took a small but enthusiastic team to the Scottish Schools Athletics Association Indoor Championships on Tuesday and Wednesday in Glasgow. On Day 1 Charlotte D (S5) was up first and, despite a slow start in the 300m, she had a fantastic second half of the race to finish 3rd, just a tiny amount behind second place. Unfortunately she just missed out on a fastest loser place in the semi finals. Tammy O (S2) ran excellent heats and semi finals to progress to the final of the 60m in her first event. She had a super day and was delighted to finish 6th in the final. Kene I (S6) ran a strong 200m at the end of the day but unfortunately did not progress to the final.

On Day 2 our returning sprinters were competing in their preferred events, Tammy in the 200m and Kene in the 60m. Kene produced a PB in his heat but, unfortunately, the competition went straight to a final and he just missed out having come 9th fastest in the heats. Tammy was tired after her exploits the day before and put in a great sprint from the tough inside lane to make the semi final. In her first competition, she did so well with managing the waiting around, warming up and cooling down as she progressed but had little left for the semi final. Unfortunately, she did not progress to the final. C-J O (S3) had a strong run in the 60m heats and loved the experience of competing at this level. This experience will stand him in good stead as he will still be in the same age bracket next year. Ziko A (S3) made two excellent jumps to start his U17 High Jump competition. He should be very proud as he overcame significant nerves to compete and make a good account of himself. Like CJ he has another year at this age bracket so it is exciting to see what he can do next year.

Cross Country

Well done to our S5/S6s in their event this week, to all the runners and medal winners who competed for their House.

Netball

It was the turn of S1 to compete in their Aberdeen Schools ASSNA tournament on Tuesday.

The girls were able to apply everything they had been working on in training since August with Mrs Fraser and they should all be very proud. They won all of their group stage games against Bucksburn Academy, Aberdeen Grammar, Cults and St Margaret’s convincingly and other schools passed comment on some of the exceptional standard shown and impressive passages of play. One of the other school’s coaches commented that the girls were playing like a District squad and that their movement and game understanding was unbelievable for being S1s. It was the first time Evie and Ines had played in the team and both stepped up to the task brilliantly. Sofia H was outstanding at GA with her movement and shooting, and was awarded RGC’s Player of the Match. The girls won a closely contested semi final against Mackie Academy and showed real character and precision to progress to the final round. They lost the final 3-1 to Albyn in an 8 minute game which could have gone either way. Silver medals are a fantastic achievement for the S1s and Mrs Fraser is excited for what the future holds for this group as they progress through school.

S1A was back on the court on Friday, this time in their Scottish Cup match against Forfar Academy. RGC gave an impressive home performance to comfortably win the match. They really built on the quality of Netball they had shown at the Aberdeen tournament earlier in the week and with confidence high, everything seemed to ‘click’. The defensive unit was strong, the mid court players worked tirelessly to transfer the ball and Macy G and Olivia J worked exceptionally well together in the circle with 85% shooting accuracy! The girls will now face Brechin Academy in the quarter finals. 

It was a very early 6am start on Saturday morning for our Senior Netball squads as they travelled to Strathallan School for the Independent Schools Netball Tournament. Our 1st VII went into the event as 2022 winners and played excellent Netball to beat Fettes, Mary Erskine, Kilgraston and St George’s to qualify for the final. Sadly they were beaten by Strathallan but overall were very proud of how they had played on the day. The 2nd VII were delighted to win all their matches and were the overall winners of the 2nds pool. The strength of our netball squads this year meant that the 3rd VII competed in the tournament too and they had a great experience playing against some tough teams.

Also on the road on Saturday were our P5-S3 netballers who travelled to Gordonstoun. Our P5-P7 team were playing their first match of the season and had a really close game with Gordonstoun, producing some really lovely passages of play. They worked so hard all game and had the biggest smiles on their faces at the end despite narrowly missing out on the win. The Gordonstoun teacher commented on how good the girls’ footwork was and one of their parents came over at the end to say how well they had played and how much they enjoyed watching the game. Rebecca was Player of the Match for her calm play and fantastic shooting, including a long range cracker on the final whistle! Miss Stephen and Miss Duddy said what a pleasure it was to be away with the teams and to see how carefully they thought about passing options and sticking tight to their players.

Players of the match awarded from Gordonstoun were:

P5-7 - Rebecca

S1 - Olivia

S3 - Chinenye 

Miss Stephen’s and Miss Duddy’s Player of the Matches were:

P5-7 - Elizabeth 

S1 - Pixie 

S3 - Ellis

Girls Hockey

High School of Dundee were the opponents for our girls matches on Saturday morning. The two P6 teams had tough matches which were hard for them with no goalies but the girls did very well and fought hard until the end. Miss Howie gave a special mention to the P5s who helped out and were excellent! The P7 Gordonians were happy with a draw against strong opponents while the P7 Pelicans worked hard for their goal but were disappointed not to win.

The focus for the S1 teams against High School of Dundee was on communication and playing to space. The girls did well to compete with a skillfull opposition, showing a lot of improvement as the minutes went by. It was great to see the team taking on board the feedback they were given and implementing when they were on the pitch. Thanks to High School of Dundee for a fantastic morning of hockey. 

S2B enjoyed a good even game and they capitalised on some great opportunities. Yasmina was Player of the Match for her fantastic work ethic and passing skills. S2A went down to their first defeat of the season. We only had 10 players available to travel and then in the first half we lost a player to injury. Dundee scored the winner in the second half and despite having the bulk of possession and play, we couldn’t score. Mr Taylor commented that it was a ‘tremendous effort’ by all and said a big thank you to the two P7 players Esme and Eilidh who stayed on and played for S2A.

The S3 team gave a much better performance on Saturday with honest endeavour all round the pitch. Dyanna in goals was Player of the Match.

After a very tight first half for the 1st XI with no goals to separate the teams, we made the breakthrough in the 2nd half. A well-worked counter attack started by Becky S from right-back led to a flowing move up the pitch with Rachel E making the final action to put the ball in the goal. It was overall a close game against a very strong High School of Dundee side who really tested our GK's in both halves, but they stood firm and kept a clean sheet. We're really looking forward to this week's Challenge Cup semi-final against Kelvinside Academy after this confidence-boosting performance.

 

Boys Hockey

Strathallan travelled to Countesswells on Saturday for our boys matches. The S1-3 team were certainly up for the game, seeking revenge after being knocked out of the Cup by Strathallan at the start of the season. It became clear very early on in the game that the RGC team had vastly improved as they controlled the game for the most part in the first half and created several chances but we were unfortunate to miss the goal. This saw us going into half time at 0-0 but the momentum was certainly in favour of RGC. Ten minutes into the first half, the boys’ persistence finally paid off and Aayan H converted a short corner with a strong hit low into the goal. The crowd, the players and the coach went wild! Following this, Strathallan launched what could only be described as a bombardment of attacks on our D all the way up until the final whistle. Unfortunately the fairytale ending wasn't to be and Strathallan squeezed one through a tight defence with the final touch of the ball making the full time score 1-1. Although the result wasn't exactly what we had hoped for, coach Mr Davidson said the boys should be immensely proud of the progress they have made so far whilst also recognising that there is still a long way to go if they wish to achieve their full potential.

2nd XI captain, Xavier M (S6) gave us the following report on his team’s match against Strathallan. "Overall the game on Saturday was a good learning experience for our younger players against a more experienced team. With it being our first game back since exams, the team took a while to get up to speed, but showed solid improvement in the second half. A disappointing result but a good shift from the team. Thanks to Strathallan for an enjoyable and competitive game."

Will C (S5) provided the following 1st XI report: "On Saturday the 1st XI boys played against Strathallan in preparation for our Plate semi-final against Loretto on Wednesday. It was good practice as we hadn’t played together since before Prelims. The team played well however the Strathallan team edged us out over the course of the match."

Rugby

There was a mix of opponents for our rugby teams on Saturday with the Junior School teams at home to Highland RFC. P6 played a very balanced match which saw strong running in attack and excellent support lines created plenty of scoring opportunities to win the match. Their tackle confidence still needs improvement and that is something we will work on in training.

With a depleted squad, P7 played a physical Highland team. It took a while for them to get into the game but eventually our fitness and ability to move the ball away from contact ensured that we won both games.

S1 travelled to Inverness and played a physical Highland team who started off strongly and scored two direct tries. The RGC boys responded with a great team try and lifted their aggression in the rucks. Faster movement of the ball through the hands created a lot of space for some big ball carries. This enabled us to get a two phase ball which has been a work on this year. The match finished with a win by 3 points for RGC.

S2 put in a really good performance at the Highland ground right from the kick off. We stuck to our targets in attack and defence and our movement of the ball and pace out wide was too much for a big physical Highland team. The boys worked hard in defence to stop their big runners and our two half backs, Oran and Rory, ran the show to help RGC to a comfortable win.

It was a bit of a mismatch for S3B against a U15/16 team from Garioch on Saturday morning. Our boys were really positive and showed some good attacking intent and defended solidly in the first 20 minutes. Garioch’s speed and size took over in the second half of the game and our boys’ heads went down a bit. We changed the game format for the last 20 minutes and RGC scored a couple nice tries and had an enjoyable finish to the game.

The 1st XV team played a physical and very ball focused Deeside team in a competitive and spicy encounter at Countesswells, and were 29-10 down at the end of the first half. Coming into the second half, RGC started upping the pace and what followed would be some lovely examples of unstructured free flowing rugby with the match ending in a narrow two point win for RGC.

Our U15 and U16 teams travelled to Mackie RFC on Sunday morning to play in the next round of the Caley Cup. S3 played a really brave and creative game but ultimately lost out to a large Mackie team. We defended strongly throughout but were eventually overpowered but kept trying to play as we adapted to an extremely muddy pitch. For the final 15 minutes we were able to put Mackie under a lot of pressure to create a few scoring opportunities. The one try we did score was a fantastic team try. The boys were really pleased with their efforts and immediately asked to play Mackie again this season at some point.

The U16 lost to a bigger Mackie side and we definitely had more rugby in us but some rust due to time away from training and postponed games led to us being camped in our own half struggling to get out for the vast majority of the first half. The second half was a nail biter as well. We started strong with good field position but failed to take any points away from the home side. We tired and cramped up towards the end of the game and couldn’t stop their big boys at source like we did in the first half, which led to them powering over for a second score. It was a tough physical game with some lessons learned. 

Team of the Week

Well done to S1-3 Boys Junior Hockey team who are this week’s TOTW for their performance against Strathallan on Saturday. They’ve shown some amazing progress this season so far and it all came together on the weekend with a great result. 

Sporting Achievements from Outside School

Well done to Ava B (S4) and Zara P (S3) who represented Aberdeen District Performance Netball vs Shetland on Saturday. The U17 squad won and U15 lost out by just one goal in a brilliant live streamed match. Well done, girls!

Congratulations to Joe R (S5) who scored a try while playing for Glasgow Warriors U18s vs Edinburgh U18s on Sunday. A fantastic achievement Joe, and good luck from everyone at RGC in your training with the U18 wider Scotland squad this month.