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News Article |
| MORAY U18’S V HIGHLAND 27/10/12 |
| Tue 30th Oct 2012 |
 Moray entertained Highland at Morriston on Saturday. The Inverness team are currently top of the league and they underlined their position with a comprehensive 1st half display which left the Moray lads trailing 27-0.
However to their credit Moray fought back in the second half and battled to the end with a gutsy performance which saw them defeated 27-5.
Highland kicked off in perfect conditions and quickly established a territorial hold in the Moray 22.
From a lineout 10 m out they moved a quick ball off the top into the 5 m channel and drove over to open the score after 7 minutes.
Moray lifted themselves from the early setback and were pressing in the visitors 22 when a pass in the midfield was intercepted by an alert Highland centre and run back 70m for a try under the posts which was converted to make it 12-0 after 10 minutes.
 This was a hard blow for the home team and Highland continued to pressurise the Moray lads from the restart.
After 15 minutes they extended their lead to 19-0 with a well worked try from a scrum won against the head which they recycled through a couple of phases before the forwards drove over from short range.
Moray were really under the cosh now and to their credit they stuck to the difficult task of keeping the visitors at bay.
However Highland broke the home defence again with a try worked up the blind side from a ruck which was touched down in the corner.
 They followed this up with a penalty on the edge of the 22 for an offside at a ruck to reach half time with a 27-0 lead,
Moray regrouped at half time and came out fighting. From the kick off they put much more pressure on the Highland team using offloads to break upfield and were able to drive right up to 5m from the try line.
The pattern of play continued with Moray enjoying much more controlled ball possession and using offloads to great effect.
The lineout was winning secure ball and the scrum was solid which allowed Smith at scrum half to supply quality ball to his backline.
Full back Ewan Stuart combined well with centres Noble and Grundie by running from deep to split the Highland defence open on several occasions.
Finally he was able to breach the defence and get Moray on the scoreboard with a well taken try, Smith’s conversion attempt just strayed wide of the posts.
 Moray continued to enjoy the upper hand in the half much to the visitors frustration.
Several forward drives were held up on the try line and despite good moves by the backline they were unable to convert the pressure into points against a well drilled defence.
This was a hard match for the Moray lads and if the second half performance had been applied throughout the match the result may have been a lot closer.
The tough recent games v Orkney and Highland are a reflection of the high standard of the league they are competing in. This weekend Ellon are the visitors to Morriston – kick off 12.30pm
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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 |
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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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