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News Article |
| STORNOWAY 12-11 MORAY |
| Wed 14th Oct 2009 |
Holidays, injuries and late call-offs took their toll on Moray’s attempts to take full points from this away fixture.
The phrase “a mixture of youth and experience” could certainly be used of the travelling squad of 16 members who left Elgin early on Saturday morning.
Several under 18 players answered the call and played for the 1st 15 and 3 of the clubs’ coaching staff pulled on their boots to ensure the fixture went ahead and the club did not have points deducted for failing to play the fixture.
Whilst Moray were still trying to get the 5 hour plus journey out of their legs the home side started the better and were quickly threatening the Moray line.
A quickly taken penalty by the massive tight head prop saw him go over in the corner only to be held up by Moray No. 8 Craig Forster who had a huge game both in defence and attack.
Moray were deemed to be not 10 metres at the penalty which was retaken only to see the same prop barrel his way through for the opening try to Stornoway. 5 – 0. The resultant conversion was missed.
This gave Moray a shake and their forwards began to take control of their own set piece plays and also began to control a lot of the loose play.
For the most part the Moray pack were clinical in their rucking, forcing Stornoway to concede penalties for infringements at the rucks. From one of the resultant penalties stand-off Hickey slotted the kick to reduce the deficit to 5 – 3 at half time.
Almost immediately after the break the Moray forwards won several good rucks to release the backs. When the move broke down good interplay and off-loading by both forwards and backs saw Forster again pop up to give the scoring pass to centre Stronach who galloped in from 10 metres out to score. 5 – 8. Hickey narrowly missed the conversion.
The Moray forwards were relishing their task and every one of them were looking to carry the ball and attach the opposition at any given opportunity.
From one of these forward drives Stornoway again infringed and gave away another penalty, which Hickey dispatched to extend the visitors lead to 6 points. 5 – 11.
The heavier home forward tired in the second half and the makeshift Moray pack capitalised by keeping the pressure on in scrums and open play.
Despite Stornoway making a good few substitutions in their pack the Moray boys still appeared to be the fitter of the two outfits.
The lighter but taller tight 5 for Moray scrummaged well throughout the game keeping the opposition scrum-half on the back foot at many scrums. Veteran hooker and coach, Chalmers, even managed ”one against the head” late on in the game.
With 15 minutes to go Moray won a good scrum in midfield. The opposition stand-off reacted quickly and intercepted Morren’s pass to his stand-off Hickey and ran half the length of the field to score an opportunist try. 10 –11. The Stornoway kicker held his nerve to slot the conversion for a 12-11 lead.
The Moray pack immediately got back to work to pressurise the home side and once more gained a penalty, which Hickey narrowly missed from fairly long range.
8 minutes from time coach, Scott Ruthven replaced fellow coach Brian Chalmers at hooker to join his son Stuart in the front row.
Moray continued to press with a belief that the game was theirs for the taking and 2 minutes from time they felt they had done it! Again good driving forward play saw them threaten the home line and after several close range attempts second row Duncan crossed the line for the winning try, only to have the referee deem it to have been scored with a double movement. To the Moray teams’ credit they battled to the final whistle.
Despite coming away from the trip with a bonus point all of the team were distraught that they did not get the win that they deserved from the bulk of the play.
The pack as in previous weeks worked well, but due to the nature of the game the backs really didn’t get a chance to fire. Father and son wingers Ian and Douglas Ireland saw very little of the ball in attack, but were resolute in their defensive duties, as were all the back division. Moray’s back row of Taylor, Jolly and Forster put in a power of work in both attack and defence.
For what was very much a scratch side there was no shortage of passion and determination and if a full strength Moray squad can play with this same attitude they should be capable of causing RAF Kinloss some problems on Saturday at home.
The match kicks of at 3 p.m. and is the first of 5 home games in a row for Moray.
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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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