Kilmarnock U18s embarked on a road trip to Helensburgh on Saturday for a friendly against Helensburgh/Lomond U18s.

With the game played in beautiful sunshine, the young Killie team started strongly, receiving the kick off and rampaging through the home defence, before being awarded a penalty 5 meters out. Cullan Urquhart took a quick tap and was rewarded with the first try of the game, which was converted by Thomas Dunlop.

From the restart, Kilmarnock again fielded the ball and took the game back to the hosts, resulting in Logan Hendrie crashing through the home defence on their 22 meter line to score below the posts. Thomas converting his second of the day.

The home team worked their way back into the game and managed to score out wide in the corner, despite a good last ditch covering tackle from full back Cameron Cottrell. The conversion however was missed from the touchline 5-14.

This score seemed to galvanize the home side, who were starting to come back into the game, in part due to some handling errors from the Killie Team that put them under pressure. Noticing space, the Helensburgh 10 put a neat kick in behind the Killie defence, with the fullback rushing through and outpacing the Killie fullback to score. This time conversion was successful 12-14.

Following some positional re-adjustments, Killie came back into the game and after some good running from Luke McCready, the ball was passed out the back line from Cullan to Max Neil who delayed his pass perfectly to hit Frazer Sands running a perfect line to glide his way through the home defence and score. Thomas again slotting the conversion 12-21.

The final score of the first half was a full team effort. Having been on the receiving end of a high tackle, Thomas kicked his resulting penalty from just outside his own 22 meter line, with the ball going out in touch just short of the home sides 5 meter line…whether meant or not, it was a mighty kick that set up a great attacking opportunity. From the resulting line out, Luke found a leaping Andrew Bryson, who played the ball off the top to Cullan, who zipped the ball out to Max. Max fixed his defender and popped a will time passed to Frazer, running a perfectly timed hard line to crash through for the score. Thomas converting his fourth the day to extend the lead 12-28 at halftime.

Killie were well on top at this stage and were attacking freely. Max was again instrumental in the next score, picking up his own missed pass, which was knocked backwards from Ricky Cruz da Fonte, before attacking the home defence and floating a looping pass to Thomas, who having moved to full back, timed his run to hit the line and score out in the corner. Thomas missed the resulting conversion 12-33.

Helensburgh/Lomond again pulled one back, though missed the conversion before Kilmarnock again crossed the line. Following another fine piece of forward work wide on the touchline, the ball was shipped from Cullan to Thomas, who floated an accurate cross field kick into the grateful hands of Adam Scott who touched down in the opposite corner. Thomas pulled the conversion just wide 17-38.

Killie's final try came from a well worked line out play, that had only been worked on at training on Thursday night! Luke managed to find Logan who hit the gap at pace to collect the ball and score from 5 meters out. Max took over conversion duty but but his effort fell just short 17-43.

The final try of the day fell to the home side, who converted to finish the game 24-43.

While the young Killie team were on top throughout the game, some poor passing, along with some handling errors and bad decision making did put them under some self imposed pressure. What is pleasing though is the belief the team now have, which is evident in the style of play. The forward park was dominant in loose play, as well as set piece at line outs and scrum. The back line are dangerous with ball in hand, and able to attack from any area of the park. The link play between both forwards and backs is now starting to come together, and once functionally fully, this team will take some stopping!

Big thanks to Helensburgh/Lomond for their hospitality, and look forward to welcoming them to Kilmarnock for a return fixture in the near future.

Today's try scorers were Frazer Sands (x2), Logan Hendrie (x2), Cullan Urquhart, Thomas Dunlop and Adam Scott. Thomas also adding 4 conversions.

There were quite a few who deserved to be MoM, however for the attacking threat with his timely runs at inside centre and numerous times he broke behind the home defence - as well as his 2 try's, todays MoM was Frazer Sands,