TWO Ayrshire schools were competing in the 2018 SP Energy Networks Warriors Championship at Scotstoun last Wednesday.

Kids from Queen Margaret Academy and Auchinleck Academy were joined by girls and boys from St Andrew's Roman Catholic School, Kirkcudbright Academy and Wallace High School as the third round of competition got underway at the home of Glasgow Warriors.

Each participating school in this year's SP Energy Networks Warriors Championship has S1 and S2 level boys’ teams competing as well as an under-15s girls’ team.

Dry weather ensured some great running rugby was on show from all the schools competing and across the 30 matches, 195 tries were scored with Stirling-based Wallace High School joining previously qualified Balfron High School and Jordanhill School in the next round.

One of the highlights of the day was the standard of competition in the girls’ matches with the Auchinleck girls’ team losing just one match.

Watching on the sidelines was Scotland Women Head Coach Shade Munro and High Performance Pathway Programme Manager for Scotland Women and Girls, Sarah Dixon.

It proved to be a successful scouting mission for the pair.

Munro said: "This tournament is a really good advert for rugby in Scotland. Every girls’ team I've watched has a couple of players who have a really good chance of playing at a higher level in a few years’ time if they stick at it.

"Coming to Scotstoun and playing on a quality synthetic pitch is conducive for running rugby and that's important when introducing

players to the game. It's good to see everyone playing rugby with smiles on their faces.”

Dixon, whose role at Scottish Rugby includes talent identification, added: "The SP Energy Networks Warriors Championship is a high energy tournament and I have seen some good evasive running which is exactly what we want to promote in all our players.

"We are having a look at players that we could potentially invite into one of our future age group programmes and some of these girls might be

ready to step up to that level soon.”

Glasgow Warriors and Scotland prop Zander Fagerson also took in some of the action alongside team-mates Leonardo Sarto, Scott Cummings and Patrick Kelly.

Fagerson said: "Rugby in Scotland is thriving and it's great to integrate boys and girls into the same tournament. Everyone is having fun which is the main thing and there's some really competitive rugby on show."