Moray House RFC

On Saturday 14th Jan Earlston RFC agreed to fulfill the fixture as a development game with uncontested scrums. Moray House had 15 players available and as the scrums were not competitive two of the backs agreed to fill in including Graeme who volunteered to prop!

The tone of the game was set straight from the kick off when a break and great offload by Earlston centre Renton opened up the Moray House defence to set the speedy winger on a charge for the try line which was halted by an excellently timed and executed tackle by full back Pete Gordon.

This seemed to give the Moray House players the belief that they can still compete at this level and with scrum half Craig Smith creating all kinds of havoc in the Earlston defence this was becoming an entertaining game of rugby to watch. The pressure applied by the Moray House pack and support of the backs prompted by stand off and captain Craig Haddow eventually led to scrum half crossing the whitewash for the first score in the game, converted by new centre Brett. 7 - 0 Moray House.

This try stirred Earlston who picked up the pace of the game and started to play the rugby which has helped them to the top half of the league this season. Again most of their attacking was coming from centre Renton using his strength and experience to find holes in the Moray House defence, but good cover tackling and counter rucking prevented Earlston from scoring. Eventually Earlstons forwards managed to put a series of rucks together which drew in the Moray House defence allowing the backs in for an equalising try. 7 - 7

The game continued to be a good contest, outwith the scrums, with both sides displaying some great rugby and solid tackling. Moray House winger Simon Carpenter was putting in some great tackles on his opposite number and making his presence felt in attack. As the first half was drawing to a close a mistake at the line out allowed the Earlston second row a clear run at the line to add a second converted score. Half Time 7 - 14 Earlston.

The second half started with a few positional changes for Moray House but this didn't stop the flow of the game and both teams continued to produce some great rugby. Moray House captain Craig Haddow crossed for the second try following great lead up work by the forwards lead by Johnny Crombie, Stuart Blackhall and RG. With a good overlap worked Craig dotted down over the line with Brett, Tom and Simon unmarked outside him. 14 - 14.

The next score came from a penalty given against Earlston in front of their posts which centre Brett stroked over to regain the lead for Moray House 17 - 14. At this stage Earlston had started to ring the changes and were able to use all five replacements. This gave them a bit of impetus and with the Moray House 15 tiring Earlston ran in two further converted tries giving them a 28 - 17 lead going into the closing stages of the game.

Despite playing 80 minutes with 15 players Moray House continued to try and play running rugby when in possession. This lead to the final try of the game when a move from a scrum lead to a dropped ball and the Earlston winger scooped up the loose ball to stroll over the line for another converted try. The final whistle saw the scoreline 35 - 17 in favour of Earlston.

Despite the loss this was a great game of rugby to watch and the Moray House players can be proud of their effort and application. Hopefully some of the injuries will start to clear up and we will have replacements available in future. Man of the match was winger Simon Carpenter who tackled strongly throughout and ran some great lines of support. He was ably supported by the other 14 players who gave everything for the full 80 minutes. Well done guys.

A big thanks to Earlston for agreeing to travel to Edinburgh for a development game. Your support at this challenging time for us is much appreciated.

Training continues at the Jack Kane Centre, Tuesday night at 7pm.