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News Article |
| MORAY 22 RAF LOSSIEMOUTH 20 |
| Mon 20th Oct 2014 |
After a physical and hard fought quarter final of the BT Caledonia Regional Bowl North at Morriston last Saturday, Moray edged out RAF Lossiemouth by 22 points to 20 to progress to the semi-final.
The Elgin side kicked off and immediately took the game to the flyers and in the 3rd minute opened the scoring. Clean ball was taken at a line-out on the half way and No 8 Harvey Freeman barged his way through the line and towards the 22. In contact he off loaded to supporting scrum half Callum Watson and he made the line out wide for the score. Full-back Ewan Stuart’s conversion attempt just came up short leaving the score at 5-0.
Moray continued to press in the early part of the game and in the 10th minute were awarded a penalty, 15 metres out, after a high tackle. Stuart stepped up and extended the lead to 8-0.
The big Lossie pack secured the ball from the restart and progressed into the 22 with some hard running play. The home side needed to put numbers into the tackle and when the ball was opened wide, centre James Leedham found himself in space to score the try. Stand-off Jordan Patrick converted to narrow the score at 8-7.
In the 20th minute, the visitors took the lead. Moray were penalised for not releasing on the deck and Patrick landed the kick for an 8-10 score line.
The home side retorted quickly. A penalty in the opposition half was kicked to touch on the five metre line. A front peel was clinically executed and Freeman gathered ball and made the line in the corner for an unconverted try and a 13-10 lead.
The Lossie forwards were running at their opposite numbers at every opportunity and in the 34th minute, a breach down the centre of the field produced a try when quick ball was released to the backs and Martin McRobbie scored out wide. Patrick could not add the conversion points but the RAF side were in the lead at 13-15.
The visitors went on to have their best spell of the match but the Moray defence were also putting in a good shift. It looked very much like they would hold out to half-time but in the 3rd minute of injury time, a good break from Lossie from inside their 22 concluded with Iwan Davies scoring an unconverted try in the corner for a 13-20 half time lead.
As in the first half, Moray started the second half well and immediately tried to put more pace in the game.
In the 46th minute, they reduced the leeway. The visitors were pinged for a high tackle, 30 metres out, and Stuart calmly slotted the kick to take the score to 16-20.
Immediately from the restart the home side gave a way a penalty in front of the post when they held the ball on the deck. Inexplicably Patrick pulled the kick wide!
Moray were now winning more and more ball and cleverly moving the big Lossie forwards around.
A penalty opportunity was missed in the 57th minute to reduce the lead further, however, in the 62nd minute, Stuart landed a penalty to reduce the lead to 19-20 when the visitors were caught offside at the ruck.
The home side were more prominent in the second half and in the 66th minute were over the line twice but could not get the ball down. The pressure on the flyers defence was so great that the referee produced a yellow card when they deliberately entered a ruck from an offside position to thwart a try scoring opportunity. Stuart landed the resulting penalty for the home side to retake the lead at 22-20.
Moray continued to press and in the 72nd minute drove deep into the opposition 22 to a ruck 5 metres from the line. A second yellow card was handed out when a similar transgression was committed. On this occasion, the home side decided on a scrum but were penalised for holding on the deck when the ball was moved to the backs.
Two minutes from time, Moray flanker Neil Wiseman was also handed a yellow card when he was adjudged to have high tackled the opposition scrum half.
In a final flurry Lossie tried to run ball to create a scoring opportiunity but a knock on mid field sounded the end of the game with Moray winning by a narrow margin at 22 points to 20.
As anticipated it was a good hard and very entertaining game of rugby. Moray had started the early part of the first half well but the big RAF side took control and had the better of the remainder of the half. The Elgin side raised the pace in the second half and for the most controlled the game, making most of the ball that they won and giving very few opportunities away to the Lossie side.
This Saturday, Moray resume BT Caledonia League Divison 2 North business and are away to league leaders Aberdeenshire 2nds. A win by the Elgin side could see them take over at the top of 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 |
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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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