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News Article |
| MORAY U18 V DEESIDE 25/10/14 |
| Tue 28th Oct 2014 |
Moray u18’s welcomed Deeside to Morriston for their first home fixture in this seasons North League.
Due to several teams withdrawing and others struggling to get games played, the league has had to be reorganised and it’s been frustrating for the dedicated players who want to get out on the pitch.
Moray kicked off with playing down the slope and Drew Cooper quickly opened the scoring with an unconverted try.
They continued to control the match and put Deeside under pressure for the first ten minutes before the visitors could break out into Moray territory and win a couple of penalties in the home sides 22.
The Moray defence was quick to close down the attack and but Deeside crossed the line only for the ball to be held up by last gasp tackle.
From the resulting scrum on 5 m the Deeside no 8 picked up and crossed the line on the blindside to level the score after 15 minutes.
Moray responded well and forced play deep into the visitors 22. From a scrum on 5 m no8 Drew Cooper picked and drove over to make it 10-5.
The Moray pack were now beginning to dominate and after a scrum on half way they worked the ball through a couple of phases on the blindside before second row James Bell picked up an offload and broke 2 tackles before running clear and scoring under the posts.
No 10 Mike Mullen converted to make it 17-5.
They followed this up with another try just on halftime. From a lineout on halfway quick ball was moved out to winger Calum Alexander and he crossed out wide. A difficult conversion kick for no 10 Mullen came back of the posts but Moray took a healthy 17 point lead into the second half.
Deeside used the opportunity to regroup at the break and came out fighting; their powerful no 8 collected the ball on half way and broke 4 tackles before crossing under the posts for a converted try.
It took Moray a further ten minutes to respond. They won a penalty on the visitors 22 and moved the ball through the forwards to pull in the defence before switching the ball to the opposite winger Alexander who crossed in the corner for his second try to make the score 27-12.
Centre Ruaridh Gunn followed up by adding a further converted try with a strong break from half way to score under the posts.
Deeside to their credit would not give up and forced play back into the Moray 22.
Sustained pressure on the Moray defence forced a penalty and a yellow card for an offence in a ruck on the line and Deeside took another quick penalty and crossed on the blindside. A very difficult conversion was added to take the score to 34-19.
Moray picked themselves up and the visitor’s lineout ball midway in the Deeside half was pinched by no 8 Cooper who broke through the defence before offloading to Gunn in support who crossed for an unconverted try.
Moray needed to keep focussed but they allowed the visitors to close the gap with some sloppy defending which allowed the no8 to pick up scrum ball on his own 5m and run the length of the pitch evading tackles and score a converted try under the posts.
This rattled the home team and they conceded further points when Deeside forced a series of scrums on the Moray line resulting in a pickup and drive over in the corner to cut Moray’s lead back to 8 points.
The Moray lads rallied and 2 tries by Dave Tuibe and Callum Sutherland saw them collect the hard earned points for a 49-31 win.
This was an entertaining match and Moray showed some real enterprise and used an effective offloading game in attack.
The pack dominated the set piece and their line speed and defence was good for spells of the game but they need to guard against complacency which will be punished by stronger opponents.
Scrum half and Captain Duncan Martin led his team well and settled their nerves when Deeside threatened to upset the match towards the end.
This Saturday Moray u18’s are away to Aberdeen Grammar.
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46 |
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40 |
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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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