Ellon RFC under-16s will finally get their chance to play at Murrayfield when they compete in the National Youth Cup final on Saturday.
The original fixture against Glasgow Hutchesons Aloysians (GHA) RFC was due to be played on December 10, but was postponed due to wintry weather.
On Ellon’s route to the final, back in November, the U16s squad defeated Stonehaven club Mackie RFC 29-12 in the quarter-finals before beating Hawick Youth 19-8 in the semi-finals.
After the three-month postponement, head coach Scott Johnston has backed his young side to make the most of their opportunity to play at the national stadium.
He said: “This squad has waited a long time for their opportunity to finally play at Murrayfield on finals day.
“They have been working hard in training and are all looking forward to the opportunity that they have earned.
“Everyone at the club is excited about the day which will no doubt be long remembered in the club’s history. The team has been together for a long time and they will no doubt as usual leave everything on the pitch.”
Ellon club chair Julie Coutts has organised for supporters’ buses to travel down to support the team so everyone involved at the club has the chance to be a part of finals day.
She said: “We’ve had some more time to organise things, so we’ve got double the support coming down which has created a lot of excitement throughout the club.
“Some of our under-16s have been with the club from when they first started playing rugby and have worked so hard, having their parents and family come down to watch them at Murrayfield is really exciting.”
Although the club were disappointed for the original fixture to be postponed, Coutts says the rescheduled clash couldn’t have been timed better after last weekend’s Six Nations finale when Scotland beat Italy.
She said: “Scotland had an outstanding performance, so it’s made playing at Murrayfield even more exciting for the boys.
“We had the Super Saturday event last weekend and there was a fair amount of the under-16s along to watch it at Victoria Hall in Ellon, so our game couldn’t have been timed much better.”
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