Tag: MightyHills

By HillheadJordanhillRFC

Hills 2XV Continue Their Unbeaten Run

In what was to be the toughest match of their season so far the Hills 2’s took on West of Scotland 2XV, a healthy rivalry to put it mildly. West were clipping at our heels in second place in the West Reserve League 1, so it was an important fixture.

The tone of the match was set early on to be a tight game but Hills scored an early try by Nathan McCann putting us up to 7-0. Discipline in the ruck was not the Hills forte however and our penalty count against finally resulted in a successful penalty kick for West.

Hills were denied what should have been a penalty try after a high tackle prevented from crossing the line. Alas the referee didn’t give it and the match went on.

After putting pressure on their line for a good while, our hearts sank as West intercepted the ball and sprinted down the line to score. A galling moment for players and spectators alike.

7-10 at half time, the top table clash was holding its promises, and it was far from over.

Hills starting the second half gunning down the slope and converting pressure through James Maddox crossing the line for our second try. The tension increased further as West replied with a try of their own. With the score line at 12-15 going into the final ten minutes it was unsure what way the match was going to go.

Soon though, Hills was again bringing the game in West 22’s, and a Northern Irish wrecking ball in the form of Adam Eakin powered from 15m out over the line to take the score the match, with West players hanging off him as he went.

The final minutes of the game were electric, West throwing all their last effort into an empowered Hills defence which would break…
Hills 2XV 19-15 West 2XV final score, raising fists for the hosts.

Notable performances included flanker Tom Primrose who was an ever present force on the pitch, Fergus Denton for a clearance kick more questionable than Tiam’s choice in post match attire. Men of the Match went to the French dream team pairing of Alban and Hugo in the back line who consistently bring it up a notch and are forever reliable. Shout out to the their French entourage that just about doubled the spectators.

So will the Multicoloured Men from Hughenden continue their dominance over the West Reserve 1 league? Absolutely #TwosDontLose

Report by Will McLean

By HillheadJordanhillRFC

Boat Racing – for Real

On a glorious Saturday in early June, Captain Kitchener lead a Hills squad to the annual Bobath Dragon boat. Clear blue skies and a gentle breeze blowing across Loch Lomond made it a perfect day for the occasion.

Hills got off to a flying start, winning the first race of the day by a comfortable margin of at least one boat length, lead by the inspiring roar of Fiona’s voice and drumming to keep us all in sync.

Unfortunately the second race didn’t go so well, under advice from the Coxen we moved some team members around to even up the weight distribution. This, combined with getting a bit out of sync with each other and attempting to go too fast before we were at a steady pace lead to several clashed paddles, a 2nd place finish and a time several seconds off the original run.

The 3rd race was an enjoyable one for the spectators, we got off to a great start and everything was neck and neck between all three boats when we got hit by a wave which when combined with the unsecure seat for our drummer, lead to near-capsize situation and a (wo)man overboard!

After a brief moment of hesitation, the crew nobly decided to carry on as there was still everything to play for. The Coxen however had other ideas and ordered us to stop and to reverse back until the safety boat could pick up our stranded crew member. We knew all was well when we were affectionately referred to as “you b*#£erds” as Fiona bobbed her way to shore.

After claiming an “equipment malfunction” the event organisers generously let us complete a solo timed run to qualify for the final by achieving one of the 3 fastest times. We lined up with our eyes on the prize and everyone gave 110% as we managed to produce our best time of the day, shaving 3 seconds to our previous PB. Unfortunately we missed out on the final by a precise 0.14 seconds; so close, yet so far. We could hold our heads high knowing that the finalists were seasoned contenders, we gave them a good run for their money.

Over £1,000 has been raised already for this great cause thanks to Kitch and donations are still kindly received as his Just Giving page is open for a while longer. We all concurred that we should put in a team next year as it was a great day out for a fantastic cause.

Reporting by Andrew Park

By Bernie Mitchell

Hills Golden Girls Shine on Silver Saturday

Hillhead Jordanhill 68 pts Watsonians 12 pts

By beating their Edinburgh rivals in the Sarah Beaney Cup Final on Silver Saturday at BT Murrayfield, HillJills completed a league and cup double for season 2017/18. A half time score of thirty two points to nil left too much of a gap for the brave Watsons team to make up, although they did cross the victor’s line twice in the second half to bring some respectability to the final score.

The basis of the victory was a superior team performance and four standout players on the day : no. 8 and captain, Louise McMillan, who consistently distributed the ball well from the base of the scrum and also carried well in the loose; Lindsey Smith, at tight head prop, whose scrummaging was too robust for her opposite number ; Abi Evans, at full back, who ran well in open play and whose changes of direction Watsonians could not cope with ; and the player of the match, Hannah Smith, whose beautifully balanced running and physicality in ball carrying caused the Edinburgh side traumas the whole game. Watsons could offer only Lana Skeldon in direct comparison.

HillJills scrummaging was dynamic and kept their opposition on the back foot the whole of the game thereby providing a regular supply of ball. The veteran Rachael Whyte also had a fine game at scrum half and ensured a plentiful flow of ball was moved wide. First half scorers were Erinn Foley who touched down first from close range, followed by Abi Evans (three tries) , Emma “Gary” Barlow (one) and Hannah Smith (one). Uncharacteristically, Ally Cook had an off day with her goal kicking and converted only one of the six first half tries, although she more than made up for these lapses with a fine game in midfield. Second half scores were recorded by Hannah Smith (three), Louise McMillan (one), Lucy Mills (one) and Abi Evans (one). Replacement full back Amanda Moore added two conversions and Sophie Anderson one. Second rower Sophie had to be taken from the field with what looked like a serious leg injury, but she bravely returned on crutches to take her place with the rest of the squad for the medals presentation.

 

The Golden Girls can then look back on a very successful season, losing only one league game against Wandies away back in November 2017. Their coaching triumvirate of Thomas Davidson, Morgan Martin and Tonci Buzov deserve credit for their professionalism at the many training sessions throughout a long and demanding season.

Words: Bernie Mitchell
Pictures: David Whyte

By Hamish Adamson

Festival of rugby in the West End of Glasgow

This weekend sees a smorgasbord of rugby in the West End of Glasgow. Four matches will be played at Hughenden, over Saturday 7th April and Sunday 8th April.

The feature match is on Sunday 8th April, when our league winning Women’s 1XV will take on Stirling County in the semi final of the Sarah Beaney Cup. Prior to that, both the Men’s 1XV and 2XV are playing at home in important league matches, which will go a long way to determining final positions in the league table. Our youth section is also playing this weekend, with our U18 Girls team taking on Biggar in the Cup.

Women’s 1XV battle Stirling County in the cup

After being runner up three years in a row, the Hilljills finally got their hands back on the Sarah Beaney Cup in 2017. They won’t want to relinquish it easily, so expect a strong performance. Hills have already beaten Stirling County twice this season, including a 79-5 thumping at home on a cold January Friday night, which has proved a popular night for rugby in the West End.

Men’s 1XV take on Haddington

The Men’s 1XV take on Haddington RFC in what is an important match for both teams. Hills are nine points behind Gordonians, who play their last game on Saturday away. A couple of five point wins in their last two games could see Hills leapfrog Gordonians into seventh place. Haddington are in a four-way relegation battle and will be desperate for a result. Pre-match lunch available, please contact John MacLean ASAP

Top Table Clash for Men’s 2XV

The Men’s 2XV have two matches remaining in the 2017/18 season and are currently sitting third in their league. We require two wins from two to maintain this position as our local rivals Glasgow Academicals are snapping at our heels. Our opponents are Hamilton 3XV, who are second in the league, in what is expected to be a tight match. Hills narrowly lost 17-12 away in December at Hamilton.

Cup run continues for U18’s Girls

The U18 girls take on Biggar, on Sunday, in the Semi Final of the U18 Girls Club Cup. The girls have had nothing short of a stellar cup run so far, which is great to see for Girls rugby in the West End. Winning 54-0 against Annan at home in the first round, then beating Cartha QP 0-55 away, followed by a 5-55 win against Lismore Girls on Friday 23rd March. Expect plenty of tries and a strong contest, as Biggar also won their last match 55-5.

Match schedules

With all four matches being played at home, there is plenty of rugby in the West End on offer this weekend. The schedule for Saturday and Sunday is as follows:

Saturday 7th April, Hillhead Jordanhill Men’s 1XV v Haddington 1XV, 1500 KO, 1XV pitch

Saturday 7th April, Hillhead Jordanhill Men’s 2XV v Hamilton 2XV, 1500 KO, Great Western Road pitch

Sunday 8th April, Hillhead Jordanhill Girls U18 v Biggar, 1200 KO, Great Western Road pitch

Sunday 8th April, Hillhead Jordanhill Women’s 1XV v Stirling County, 1400 KO, 1XV pitch

Local professional side, Glasgow Warriors, are also playing on Saturday 7th April, KO at 1615. The matched will be shown live in The Yill Hoose. As if you didn’t need more of an excuse to come out and support your local club!

As always, team cards will follow on later this week via social media. You can also keep up to date with latest developments on rugby in the West End on Twitter via @HJRFC and @hilljillsrugby.

By HillheadJordanhillRFC

Mini-HillJills Strike Again and Reach Cup Quarters

Sunday saw our U18 Girls drawn to play Cartha in the first round of the Girls club cup! The girls were in confident mood following last weeks try fest v Annan! (55-0 at Hughenden for those who missed it)

Hills girls were on fire right from the start and took the game to their opposition straight from the kick off!
Strong running from the forwards and some dazzling back play saw the Hills blow Cartha away, scoring 8 tries in the process!
2 tries each for Zoë Toner, Anne Young and Erinn Foley and a try a piece for Melanie Grant and Jess Murphy with a number of fine conversions from Mel seen the girls run out 52-0 winners and progress through to the 1/4 finals of the cup!

Our forwards had stranglehold on possession with numerous strikes against the head in the scrum and stealing most of Cartha’s line-outs! Anne, Chiara and Aimee provided a strong set piece platform with Juliet and Eve in the engine room! This allowed us to launch No8 Erinn Foley at the Cartha defence time and again!

The backs are starting to string some moves together and with each match improve! The midfield of Brogan, Abbé and Mel has a nice balance to it and this in turn is providing good ball for the back 3 to explore and Zoë, Heather and Bethany/Jess lapped it up!

Report by Andrew Johnston

By HillheadJordanhillRFC

Hills/Loch Lomond U13 Back on the Grass

After a couple of cancelled matches it was great to finally have our combined Hills/Loch Lomond U13 out on the grass for their first match of the year. Any cobwebs were soon cleared when playing three 15 minute sets against a hard tackling Strathaven.

Both teams brought 17 or 18 boys so our boys had their first experience of fifteens over the thirteen usually played at S1.

Our scrum was good and we saw Strathaven going backwards on more than one occasion. We had some good phases of play and an excellent try in the first period. The game became more broken in the latter periods and Strathaven played better as a team in coming up in a defensive line and their support play and rucking.

Our front pack individually were good and will come together even more as our fixtures continue. Our rucking was sometimes tentative leading to turn-overs and we probably need to get more tackling from the backs. Combining with Lomond is great for us and the boys are getting on well together and getting to know each other better.

This fixture was a repeat of one in November and on this occasion we were clearly more competitive.

Big thanks to referee Stella Kyalikunda

By Gary Gillespie, U13 Coach

By HillheadJordanhillRFC

2A’s Break 2018 Duck Against Dalziel

Hillhead Jordanhill 2A XV 17 – Dalziel 3XV 14

Saturday saw a strong Hills 2A’s side host Dalziel in repeat of the close November encounter which saw Hills overcome Dalziel 31-33 away. After the previous week’s fixture with Greenock postponed due to flooded pitch, Hughenden was fortunate to enjoy excellent playing conditions this time round.

In the opening exchanges of the game it was Dalziel who demonstrated a greater physicality and managed to keep ball tight to the pack to maintain the initial possession advantage. However it was Hills that looked more dangerous ball-in-hand with some great runs in open play from both wing-forwards and a feisty Fergus Denton at 8. The midfield partnership of Euan McMahon and Ben Chaddock had pretty lean ball in opening quarter but made some good carries and distributed well to a strong back line after an excellent break from scrum-half Dean Campbell Drummond sent Dalziel defense scrambling. Some quick hands off the ruck finally managed to connect a flying Andy Bolster who duly held his man to put William Murphy away in the corner for the first score of the game.

However Hills failed to capitalize on the score and after many punishing phases Dalziel had won their way to 5 meters out and took advantage with a pick and go to ground behind the Hills posts.

Hills appeared to be in the ascendancy again before the break and in the next phase of possession Tom Donaldson tried to capitalize on a stretched defense with a cross-field kick to wing which did not quite come off. With the score 7-5 in favour of Dalziel at the break, Hills needed to focus on providing a better platform to execute more attacking options and take advantage of our pace out wide.

The start of the second half mirrored the start of the game with Dalziel claiming opening set-pieces to find themselves winning a scrum from a knock-on 10 meters out. Hills had defended well the repeated charges of Dalziel’s pack. But a scything run from the Dalziel outhalf stretched the Hills midfield to expose a gap which allowed him to cut inside for an easy try which he duly converted (i.e. a mis-tackle in the back line allowed them to score after being bounced by our pack…).

In the next phases Hills re-grouped with the front row matching the Dalziel challenge in the scrum to work the home side inside the Dalziel half before Tom Donaldson punted a sharp and rangy grubber through a gap to force a line out behind the 22. Hills, now looking more urgent, presented multiple attacking options before Finlay McMillan crashed over the line off the back of a ruck 2m out. The conversion went through the posts to put Hills in close range with 12-14 to the guests.

The following period saw lean pickings for both sides with some broken play and steely defenses halting momentum. However this ended with an inspired and incisive try from Dean Campbell Drummond, aka Dynamite Dean, who exploited a very narrow but exposed blind side from 10 meters out. The kick stayed shy of the posts but put Hills ahead 17-14. The game closed with Dalziel throwing repeated charges down the slope to take back the score. Hills defended well and demonstrated good enough discipline to ensure there was not a point taken in the Dalziel challenge until the liberating final whistle.

Hills will now look to build on this first win of ‘18 for the 2A’s with solid defense, discipline and more confident handling as positive improvements over the last few difficult games.

This game also saw a beautiful and too rare event to go unnoticed, as Niall Houston* received his first senior front rower star. Congratulations to him!

Report: Stephen Cunniffe
Picture: Ian McLennagham

By HillheadJordanhillRFC

Summer is Coming, and Tartan Touch at Hughenden

Hillhead Jordanhill RFC is very proud to have been selected as a new Tartan Touch Hub this season!
This summer, The Hills will host sessions at Hughenden of this very integrative and simplified non-contact version of Rugby. Minis, junior and senior players will all mix in, and welcome any new comers to the game and the club.

The rules are very easy and designed to maximise the fun around a rugby ball; please visit tartantouch.org for a preview.

More information will come following this announcement, stay tuned for details!
By HillheadJordanhillRFC

Hills Collection for Drumchapel Food Bank

Following the initiative of Louise and Owen, our club captains, HJRFC is collecting items for Drumchapel Food Bank . The club is inviting the whole Hillhead Jordanhill community for donations. They should be left under the tree in our Yill Hoose Bar (Hillhead Sports Club upstairs bar) between Thursday 7th and Sunday 10th December.

@drumfoodbank is an independent Food Bank, they receives no government funding and is not subsidised by a church organisation, relying purely on the kindness of the local community and local businesses.

As well as providing their clients with food we also provide a wrap around service in which we signpost them to the necessary organisations to help with debt advice, mental health, budgeting, etc. Over Christmas the team will be providing clients with a Christmas dinner and gifts as well as usual food.

The following items are particularly needed at the moment:

  • Tinned Meals (mac n Cheese, Curry, Stew, etc…)
  • Toilet rolls, Soap, Soap powder
  • Tinned Custard & Rice Pudding
  • Tinned Veg (Sweetcorn, peas, beans, etc…)
  • Nappies (size 5/6/7)
  • Toys for Children of all ages
  • Presents for adults (must not contain alcohol, if gift cards, Argos is recommended)
  • Wash sets for adults

Whether you are involved in the Womens, Mens, Youth section or part of the Hills community, please take this chance to make a real difference to some people’s Christmases.

🎅 #oneclub #hillshelps #happyhillsmas

By Bernie Mitchell

2A’s Harvest on the Last Play

Dalziel 3rdXV 29 points Hillhead/Jordanhill 2AXV 33 points

This was a very enjoyable, closely contested game played on a very firm pitch at the Clelland estate in Motherwell. For most of the game, Hills struggled again a much more physical home pack who were well drilled in the short range line out driving mauls. Indeed, Hills had to exist on scraps of first phase possession. Legendre was the main source of line out balls, while scrum half, Bolster, struggled at times with an uneven heel from the set piece.

It didn’t look good for the Hills at halftime, despite some strong running from Stevens which produced a penalty try and then a close range effort from Michaud. Dalziel, ten points up at the interval (22-12), had benefited from numerous penalties, using their number 10 long-range kicking to bring them in range for their mauling game. Dalziel continued to drive hard at the Hills, but the superior conditioning of the visitors paid off eventually in the final quarter.

Thanks to the wonderful surgical skills of flyhalf Crome, who carved up the home midfield with a fine defence splitting run, Hills were able to establish some attacking options in the Dalziel half. Quick movement of the ball through the hands allowed both visiting wingers to extend the home defence, but the searing pace of Mitchell and “Bambi” Davidson proved too much for Dalziel and both scored fine tries, with Davidson converting both to take the score to twenty nine points to twenty six with only sixty seconds left to play.

During the last play, Mitchell switched his line of running to set up an attacking ruck in the Dalziel twenty two. Veteran replacement prop, Richardson, officiating in second row, tidied up, then picked and drove at the splintered Dalziel fringe defence laying back a superb ball for Andy Bolster to uplift and scamper unopposed to the line. Winger Davidson added the extras and the final whistle blew. The Hills squad was ecstatic, while the Dalziel squad were dejected, having just lost a game they had been ahead in for seventy nine minutes. Fair result ? Maybe “Aye”, maybe “Naw”. The beauty and aesthetic of sport!!