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News Article |
| SHETLAND V MORAY – RBS BOWL NORTH SEMI FINAL |
| Sat 2nd Feb 2013 |
Moray made the long journey north to Shetland on a cold and snowy weekend. A squad od sixteen players and one spectator took on the challenge of a strong Shetland team going well in their league.
Shetland started very well with some good attacking moves and well placed kicks but the Moray defence held strong. A please feature of any hows of hard graft on the training ground. Ten minutes into the game Moray broke into the Shetland 22 metres. The ball was worked from left to right with right wing John Hester being stopped just short,. The ball was recycled clincally for second row Steven Clark to drive over for the first score just to the right of the posts. Fly half for the day, Andrew McBean added the extras for a seven – nil lead for Moray.
From the restart moray pressed hard but the Shetland defence held strong. Despite Morays best effort they could get the second vital score. Shetland had thought they had cleared the danger with a kick to midfield. This allowed inside centre Chris Clarke to kick into the space behind the defence as they rushed forward and chase the ball to the try line. His opposite number had other ideas and sprinted get to the ball first. In his enthusiasm he impeded Clarke and the referee had no choice but to award a penalty try under the posts. McBean scored the simple conversion for a fourteen – nil lead.
The rest of the first half got bogged down in a midfield forwards battle with both teams not giving a quarter. As always in in these situations penalties become a possibilty and Shetland were the first to give a kickable one away on the half hour for going into the ruck from the side. Again McBean put the ball cleanly between the post for what turned out to be a 17 – nil half time lead for Moray.
Shetland are not second in their league by default but because they are a good team. They started the second half very strongly using their big hitters to drive up the field. Moray gave a penalty in midfield which allowed Shetland to kick for the corner. From the resulting line out they gathered in set the maul for a drive to the corner and over the line for a try out wide. The difficult conversion was missed.
Shetland had the upper hand pressing he Moray defence hard and in the fifty second minute scored their second try. From a line out on the right about fifteen metres from the Moray try line the Shetland forwards moved the ball out to their backs woho set up a ruck in front of the Moray posts. Quick ball enabled the forwards to power their way over for the try. With kick converted the score was now 17-12 to Moray.
From the restart Moray kicked deep to help the relieve some of the pressure and as Shetland gathered and moved the ball across their 22 metre line Morays backs moved up to make the tackle and create a ruck. Shetland went of their feet and gave away a penalty which Moray gratefully accepted and McBean took the points giving Moray an eight point lead and meaning that Shetland needed two scores to win.
This did not deter the Islanders and they throw everything they had at Moray. The visitors held strong putting their bodies on the line, none more than man of the match James Taylor, and managed to survive to the final whistle running out 20 points to 12. The other semi final is still to be played so at the time of writing Moray do not know who their opponents will be.
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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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