GHAs U18 sevens squad will be playing at Ibrox, in front of 45,000 spectators, during the Commonwealth Games after they reached the final of the Emirates 7s at Scotstoun last Saturday. They eventually lost out to Dundee High School 12 5 in a tense final played on the main pitch in front of 10,000 fans.
The final was very closely matched and after a nervy start the deadlock was broken by Euan McKirdy, the GHA scrum half, who broke through the Dundee defence and ran clear to score. In the second half Dundee upped the pace and ran in two unanswered tries, converting one, to finish deserved 12 5 winners.
GHAs started the day playing against George Watsons, the pre-tournament favourites. They couldnt have started any better as Scott Plumridge broke a couple of tackles to score under the posts after 1 minute, Andrew Goudie converted.
Goudie then added his own converted try 3 minutes later to put George Watsons well on the back foot.
The game was only evened up when Nigel Kelly was red-carded for an alleged spear tackle.
Against 6 players George Watsons managed to score 2 tries of their own but only converted one of them, leaving GHA as 14 12 winners.
The cup quarter final saw GHA comfortably beat Dumfries 20 – 5. Early tries from Plumridge and Goudie settled the team who then played some of their best sevens of the season. Further tries from Tom Brown and a superb effort from Eoghan Summers finished off Dumfries who only managed a late try as consolation.
The semi-final against Dollar Academy finished as a 12 12 draw but that doesnt really tell the story of the game. GHA got in front early with a first minute try from McKirdy and a forth minute solo effort from Goudie who added the conversion. Zander Gregor was then yellow carded and against 6 men Dollar got into their stride. Two tries and one conversion late on tied the scores but GHA progressed to the final having scored the first try.
GHA now have their own Braidholm U18 7s tournament to look forward to on Friday 23rd May before starting preparations for a rematch against Dundee High School at Ibrox in July.
Photo from L to R: Euan McKirdy, Tom Brown, Nigel Kelly, Alec Trew, Andrew Goudie ©, Cammy McIlwham, Zander Gregor, Eoghan Summers, Scott Plumridge, Matt McShane