Back row:
John Stuart, Martin Donaldson, Jamie Hickey, Lee Millar, Stuart MacCallum, James Henderson, Jamie Durkin, Scott Podubecki, Alex MacWilliam
Front row:
Fraser Duncan, Douglas Ireland, John Westmacott, Steven Clark, Jamie Rice, Paolo Spath
Last Saturday, 16th February, Moray U-18’s travelled away to Stirling County in the latest game in Group 1 of the Caledonia Cup Competition. County, as current holders of the Cup were always going to be very tough and well drilled and being a holiday weekend, Moray travelled with the minimum number of 15.
In perfect playing conditions and on the first team pitch in front of the stand, County got off to a good start, putting pressure on Moray for the first 7-8 minutes. However, these first encounters set the tone for the Moray defence all day, committed and organised. By tackling well and putting pressure on the County attack, Moray repeatedly forced County in to mistakes and won turnover ball in contact at critical times in the game.
After 15 minutes, with County on the attack just inside the Moray half, a timely interception from Lee Millar, with a fantastic pick up on the run off his toes, saw Lee outpace the first line of cover and cutting inside the full back, he offloaded in the tackle to James Henderson to run in under the posts. Lee duly converted to open the scoring at 7-0 to the visitors. This clearly rocked County and it was Moray who started to dominate the possession.
With the solid scrum throughout the game, in fact taking four against the head, Moray started to put more pressure on the home side. Repeated offsides from County allowed Lee to kick two penalties for the score to reach 13-0 by half time. Just before the half time whistle, several Moray attacks only just failed to score another try. James Henderson driving through the County pack from 5 yards out, grounding the ball quite clearly for the spectators to see, however, the referee was unsighted and the score not given. The home side did defend well to close out the half with no other scores.
The second half saw the home side putting on a number of replacements, using all seven subs during the half, with County again starting well. Moray tackled again and again, but a quickly taken tap penalty saw the County forwards drive over in the corner to open their scoring. A missed conversion left the score at 13-5 to Moray.
Once again, the better contact skills from Moray and better discipline meant they were able to stifle the County attacks and take the penalty opportunities, with Lee slotting another kick to stretch the lead to 16-5. The County side were clearly trying to throw everything at Moray, new players coming on and the fresh legs saw County score a converted try half way through this half. With the score now at 16-12, the home crowd during this next ten minute period clearly thought the game was turning their way, however the dogged determination from the Moray players, raising the game once more and with good driving forward play, set a platform for Lee to slot a left-footed drop goal. At 19-12 down, County had no answer and Moray defended the last five minutes to record an outstanding win against the Cup holders on their own ground.
The Stirling County side and supporters were clearly stunned. This was a superb effort from this Moray U-18 side, who have trained and worked so hard for years to build this side. Throughout the game they showed outstanding commitment in defence, superior skills in the contact area and fantastic discipline under pressure.
The front row of Stuart McCallum, Martin Donaldson and Fraser Duncan were tremendous, in the scrum and in the loose. Martin led the way in the pack, winning four strikes against the head and with some excellent tackling and turning over the County ball in contact, was able to stifle many home side attacks.
The second row, Steven Clark and Jamie Durkin were tireless and did all the unseen hard graft that any successful pack has to do, spoiling and stealing lineout ball and tackling to a standstill.
The back row, led from the front by No 8 John Stuart, with John Westmacott and Douglas Ireland at flanker, had to contend with a very big back row from the home side, but were able to put a lot of pressure on the opposition half backs, forcing mistakes at critical times.
At half backs, James Henderson and Lee Millar, who have a very good understanding, were very solid in defence, James tackling any County forwards and marshalling the Moray pack very well and Lee, controlling the field from stand off, was an ever present threat to the County side.
The midfield of Jamie Rice and Alex MacWilliam tackled and covered for the whole game, also making some good breaks, making sure that the County defence needed to come up too quickly at times and giving away offside penalties.
The back three of Jamie Hickey, Scott Podubecki and Paolo Spath were very solid, making some excellent tackles at very important times.
It was a tremendous team effort. For a Moray U-18 side to travel to Stirling County, to play the Cup holders on their home ground and record a victory such as this is fantastic. The next game is against Aberdeen Grammar away, which will be a huge match again, but these lads have set their own standards and are already looking forward to the next run of games.
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