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News Article |
| MORAY U18 V GORDONSTON 28-09-13 |
| Wed 2nd Oct 2013 |
 Moray u18’s welcomed Gordonston to Morriston on Saturday for what turned out to be an enthralling encounter between 2nd and 3rd placed in the league, with the visitors snatching victory in the last 5 minutes to win 27-24.
Gordonston kicked off and quickly won a turnover in the first ruck on the Moray 10 m line. Their backline moved the quickly to their centre who drifted through the Moray defence and opened the scoring with a try in the corner.
After this early wakeup call, the Moray team slowly found their way back into the game and got to grips with their rucking play. The first 20 minutes of the half were evenly matched with both sides opening up the opposition defences by using their strong running centres to break tackles.
Moray got themselves on the score sheet after 26 minutes through a great series of driving rucks by the forwards which sucked in the defence before scrum half Lewis McDonald broke down the blindside and scored. No 10 Calum Gaffney converted to make it 7-5.
The score got Moray fired up and they finished the half creating several good opportunities and were unlucky not to add to their tally but were punished when one of the Gordonston backs intercepted a pass near their try line and ran the length of the pitch to score and make it 10-7 for the visitors at half time.
The second half began with Moray attacking but Gordonston seized the initiative when their centre intercepted a pass in the mid field and broke from half way to score an easily converted try under the posts making it 17-7.
 This spurred the visitors on and they were in the ascendancy for the next 5 minutes adding to their tally with another try following a great break by their centre Alan Hunte who took the ball to within 10m of the Moray
line before he was caught by full back Kieran Young. The Gordonston support was on hand to finish the move with a try out wide making it 22-7 for the visitors after 10 minutes of the second half.
Many teams might have thrown in the towel at this point but the Moray lads dug deep and fought their way back into the game with a break by full back Young into the visitors 22 which led to a penalty. The Moray pack took the ball on and no 8 Drew Cooper drove over to score.
Moray then took play straight back to the visitors and used a scrum to pull in the defence before moving the ball down the back line to winger Gregor Hands who went over in the corner but had the presence of mind to carry on and touch down under the posts and give Gaffney an easy conversion to make it 19-22 with 10 minutes left.
 Straight after the restart Moray won a scrum on halfway when the ball didn’t carry 10 m and no 9 McDonald broke and offloaded to centre Ewan Stuart running a great line to carve open the defence before offloading to winger Cameron Murray in close support who touched down to give Moray a well deserved 24-22 lead.
Gordonston to their credit took up the challenge and worked the ball into the Moray 22 to win a scrum. From the set piece they moved the ball down their back line and score in the corner to regain the lead 27-24 with 5 minutes left.
Moray threw everything into the last 5 minutes and had several opportunities to grab a victory at the death, but were held out by a stout Gordonston defence.
This proved to be a great advert for local rugby with some exciting attacking play from both sides.
The Moray pack were outstanding in set piece play and after some shaky ruck play in the first 15 minutes they managed to compete well in the loose for the rest of the game.
The backs were strong in defence and created some great scoring opportunities by running good lines of attack and taking opportunities to attack whenever they could. A draw would have been a fair result in the circumstances but Gordonston take the 3 points and move to the top of the league.
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| Aberdeenshire |
12 |
46 |
| Highland 2nd XV |
11 |
46 |
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12 |
40 |
| Ross Sutherland |
10 |
22 |
| Banff |
12 |
19 |
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10 |
10 |
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9 |
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Last 1st XV Game |
| 1st XV Season (2021/22) |
| Banff 33 - 39 Moray |
| 5th Mar 22 - KO: 15:00 |
| Venue: Duff House |
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