Moray House

Rugby Football Club

Ground: Jack Kane Centre, 208 Niddrie Mains Road, Edinburgh.

Match Report:

The early exchanges of this game saw both teams determined not to lose a score. Every scrum, ruck, maul, lineout and second phase ball was eagerly contested.

The match was played on a sticky pitch which caused numerous handling errors. Ricky was taking some good ball in the lineout and when the ball was passed out to Ben he was making good ground. We were trying to force the play but were being hampered by too many handling errors.

Mid-way through the first half we looked to have taken the lead when Neil made it over the line but he was robbed of the ball, by the fullback, on his way down.  The scrum was competing well and they were rewarded when Charlie managed to steal one against the head. Both sides were desperately trying to find a way through but good tackling and sound defence prevented it.

Our defence was called upon just before half time when Dick Vet made a rare visit to our line, again good tackling five meters out prevented a score.

Half time 0-0

We lost Neil, who damaged his ribs trying to score. Coup replaced him to add his weight to the scrum. We made our way to their 22 and were awarded two penalties for handling in the ruck. Chris proceeded to miss them both but was on target minutes later with a drop goal from good scrum ball.

Dick Vet were still playing with lots of effort and they were rewarded when slack defence in our 22 saw the ball being spilled by us and a kick and charge over the line was won by them. Back down the pitch we came to take a shaky lead with a converted penalty by Chris.

We went behind moments later when the Dick Vet stand-off made a break from scrum ball and with the defence AWOL he ran in under the posts for a converted score. There were still fifteen minutes left for us to win the game and attempted breaks by Rusty, Coup and Steve were brought to a halt before the defensive line was broken. 

We nearly lost another score but for the heroic tackling of Grant who took the Dick Vet player into touch two meters out. He damaged his shoulder and had to be replaced and he was also harshly penalised for not making a proper tackle. We managed to clear the danger and made one final effort to score, scrum ball was passed out to Chris and he set up a crash ball to Ben, he unfortunately spilled the ball and the game was out of reach.

Ball retention in the tackle was poor all afternoon but Dick Vet were good at dislodging the ball. There was lots of effort put into this game but I think we are starting to suffer by having to field teams with too many changes each week and not playing games every week.

Result 6-12.