Oban Lorne Under 16s made their third away journey of the National school bowl competition to Dunblane on Sunday to face Queen Victoria School (QVS).
The hosts dominated the early exchanges of the semi-final encounter, but were repelled by a stubborn Oban defence until they finally crossed the try line in the 10th minute.
The game continued in the same vein for the remainder of the first-half, with Oban defending well against a wave of QVS attacks, before the hosts added another try to take a 14-0 lead into the interval.
However, Oban started the second-half strongly, with driving runs from Hamish Macintyre, Hamish Martin and Josh Olds forcing a string of penalties.
One of these could easily of resulted in a penalty try for a deliberate knock on when Oban looked certain to score.
They did eventually score after strong play from the tireless Macintyre saw him crash over from short range to make it 14-5.
Oban had the upper hand in the forwards and despite their dominance, they were unable to capitalise on this advantage.
This was largely due to a fast and athletic QVS back row that and put pressure on the Oban midfield after scrums, causing uncharacteristic errors.
These errors helped QVS to score three breakaway tries to take the score to 35-5, but the Oban boys never gave up and Matin continued to make dents in the opposition’s defence.
Unfortunately for the visitors, persistent handling errors handed the home side one more try to bring the final score to 40-5.
The number 10 from QVS managed the game beautifully, with a mix of strong running with intelligent kicking, while for Oban the man of the match was Dougie Brown.
The youngster caught every high ball and counter attacked with speed and power, while the Louis Smyth also impressed as he returned on the wing.
Oban Under 16s boys will resume their season in January and will be hoping to come back stronger.