Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Rugby mid-term report: Gordonians exactly where they expected to be in National 3

Gordonians captain Chris McIlroy has led his team to 11 straight wins. Image: Jim Irvine / DC Thomson
Gordonians captain Chris McIlroy has led his team to 11 straight wins. Image: Jim Irvine / DC Thomson

Gordonians are sitting pretty at the top of National 3 at the halfway point of their season but captain Chris McIlroy insists his club is exactly where he expected them to be.

A blemish-free 11 wins from 11 games, as well as nine bonus points, emphasises the consistency the Aberdeen side have shown so far this season.

The numbers do not lie. A massive 533 points scored and just 149 conceded makes for hugely impressive viewing for head coach Jim Greenwood and his players.

McIlroy, however, is not surprised.

He said: “Hand on heart I was fully expecting this. I know it sounds a little cocky but we were very unlucky to be relegated last season.

“We should have stayed up in National 2 and were competing. We beat the eventual champions of National 2 and went down.

“Coming down we didn’t lose too many players and we managed to add some players.

“Our pre-season showed we were really up for this and we’re very proud to have beaten every team in the league.

“The job is only half done though and we’ll be focused just as hard on the second half of the season.”

Focus on maintaining momentum in 2023

Jim Greenwood
Gordonians head coach Jim Greenwood

The GoGos came out on top in their last outing before the winter break, ending West of Scotland’s unbeaten record with a 26-24 victory.

McIlroy is frustrated two postponements before the break denied his side the chance to build on their excellent victory but is confident he and his team-mates can carry on where they left off at Allan Glen’s on January 7.

He said: “We’ve beaten all 11 teams and we’re very happy with that.

“In our last game at West of Scotland we controlled the game very well and were ahead the whole game so it was very pleasing to reach the halfway point having beaten all the other teams in the league.

“We were pretty gutted not to follow that up at Howe of Fife as we wanted to go into the break having ticked that away game off as well but unfortunately it has been rescheduled for April.

“Then there was the home game against Greenock too.

“I can’t actually recall, even when I was at school, a game being called off at Countesswells due to snow or ice on the pitch but there you go.

“We’re looking good but we know we have Allan Glen’s early in the New Year so that will be a big target game for us.”

Favourites’ tag no problem for league leaders

As the only unbeaten side remaining in the division Gordonians are the team everyone wants to beat.

McIlroy, however, insists they are comfortable having that tag as the focus switches to carrying their first-half form into the second half of the campaign.

He said:  “We became the scalp for everyone within the first four or five weeks.

“We’ve had that target all season due to us being a team which came down from a level above so we’re used to it.

“Every team we’ve played they’ve said they have regarded their game against us as their key fixture and the same will happen again in the second half of the season.”

Conversation