Moray U16s 36-7 Orkney U16s

Picky - Sunday 21st October 2012

On the main pitch on Sunday at 12:30 Moray kicked off to Orkney. Orkney was dominating play in the first 15 minutes with Orkney forwards Pirie and Stout using their power to ruck out the Moray forwards, this keeping Moray in their own half.

Orkney were unfortunate not to capitalise on this domination, by getting held up over the line on two occasions after strong Orkney forward play and a great driving lineout. But as soon as Moray were able to get hands on the ball, their backs used good hands to run round the Orkney backs and score the first try.

The conversion was missed. 5-0.

Moray seemed to build on this, and started to use their backs to good effect. Once again the Moray back line got the ball out to their winger who was able to run round the defence and score under the posts. Conversion over. 12-0.

Orkney were struggling to get the ball as the Moray forwards were proving to be dominant in the set piece, and to good effect to Moray they scored another try and the conversion was converted. 19-0. It was only now that Orkney started to play again.

By getting a line out on Moray’s 22 metre line, Orkney’s forwards made brilliant progress with a catch and drive right to the line but were once again held up. Moray collapsed the ruck anyway so a penalty was given to Orkney, which Chris Munson to full effect, crashed over the line. Conversion over. 19-7.

Half time.

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Moray once again started well and kept possession and showed strong defence which led to turnover ball causing Orkney some problems. Some of the Orkney players were getting tired, leaving some gaps in the Orkney defence. Moray took advantage of this by scoring 2 tries in quick succession. Both tries were unconverted making the score 29-7.

Orkney were struggling to get out of their own half, and having to defend so much strong runs from the opposition. This resulting in one last try to a very good Moray back line move that was scored in the corner. Conversion over.

Final score 36-7.

The score doesn’t reflect on how close a game it really was. Orkney had a few players missing due to holidays, but there was a big improvement from the Highland game, especially from the forwards, who put up a good contest for the opposition.

Coach Bruce Ruthven commented;

"the boys stuck in well today and contested really well in the lineout and open play but did struggle at set piece in the scrum. We were unlucky not to have two early tries in the first half which would have made a real difference to the game but credit due to Moray who used the width off the pitch well to cause our outside backs difficulty and score most of their tries. The boys play Ellon away next week so we will look forward to that.”

Match Report by Mark and Taylor.

More photos from the match can be found here.

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