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News Article |
| MORAY U18 V MACKIE 30/11/13 |
| Thu 5th Dec 2013 |
Moray u18’s made the trip down to Stonehaven on Saturday for a top of the table tussle with league leaders Mackie. In a close fought match with a depleted team due to injury and illness 15 man Moray pushed the Mackie lads all the way but lost out 34-18 in the end.
Moray kicked off and both sides probed each other’s defences early on in a tight contest.
Moray’s pack were in fine form but Mackie’s 10 was controlling his sides possession well and kicking intelligently to get them out of trouble as well as feeding good ball to their powerful centre to attack the Moray defences.
Mackie eventually opened the scoring after 20 minutes when their fly half moved them deep into Moray’s 22 with a well placed penalty kick to touch from his half.
Their forwards retained possession from the lineout and sucked in the Moray defence before moving the ball back across the pitch to score in the corner.
Moray came right back from the restart and on 23 minutes won a penalty in front of the posts for offside after some great rucking play in the home teams 22. Lewis McDonald slotted it over to bring the lead back to 2 points.
On 30 minutes Mackie moved lineout ball to their powerful 12 who broke the midfield defence and score out wide to make it 10-3.
They followed this up with another well taken try a couple of minutes later when Mackie turned over a ruck on 10 m and a loose ball was collected and moved out to the centre who powered into the corner to make it 15-3 at half time.
Moray task became even harder when 5 minutes into the second half a Moray scrum on their 5m line was badly controlled and a loose ball was picked up by Mackie’s fly half who reacted quickly and waltzed over into the corner to make it 20-3.
The visitors refused to buckle though and 5 minutes later they got a deserved try when they picked up a loose ball on half way and some good offloading by support players allowed Mathew Pickles in his first full match to go over in the corner and pull the deficit back to 12 points.
Moray now had their self belief back and some fantastic work by the forwards was creating panic in the Mackie team.
A 40m driving maul took them deep into the home 22 where they won a penalty when Mackie pulled down the maul. They kicked to touch and set up another driving maul from the lineout.
Only desperate try line defence by Mackie kept prop Warren Greaves out, but finally the pressure told and full back Kieran Young squirreled over in the corner to bring the visitors back into the game with the score 20-13 and 20 minutes left on the clock.
5 minutes later Mackie pulled away again with a try after winning a loose ball on half way and quickly moving it to their winger who went over in the corner.
They followed this up with another try after 25 minutes when they won scrum ball on half way and their big centre broke the defence to go in under the posts for a converted try.
Moray would not give up however and dominated territory for the final ten minutes and got a deserved try when scrum half McDonald took a quick tap penalty 30 m out, broke the defence and centre Cameron Beattie was on hand to go over and make the final score 32-18
Moray battled well with a depleted squad and a completely new back line with 2 props playing at centre and on the wing and 3 other backs playing out of position.
They made Mackie battle all the way for the win. The forwards put in a great performance dominating the set plays and doing well in the loose play, as well as setting up a couple of really penetrating driving mauls.
Moray now face Gordonston on Saturday in what will be a keenly fought local derby between 2nd and 3rd in the league.
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Caledonia 2 North |
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| Aberdeenshire |
12 |
46 |
| Highland 2nd XV |
11 |
46 |
| Moray |
12 |
40 |
| Ross Sutherland |
10 |
22 |
| Banff |
12 |
19 |
| Mackie |
10 |
10 |
| Aberdeen Grammar 2nd XV |
9 |
1 |
|
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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