Moray House RFC

With a gale blowing down the pitch at the Jack Kane this was never going to be an easy game to control for either side. Moray House won the toss and took the strong wind at their back for the first half.

The difference between the teams style of play was evident early on as Penicuik stuck doggedly to their pick and drive game whilst Moray House tried to move the ball through the hands of their speedy backs.

Once again the blight of this season reared it's head when prop Ryan Patterson was trapped in a ruck and twisted his knee trying to free himself, signaling the end of his game. A missed kick at goal by centre Bret Martin was all there was to show for the domination of territory Moray House were securing whilst the Penicuik 10 showed some signs of his skill and pace by finding gaps in the first up defence. Unfortunately for him the rest of his backs weren't on the same wavelength and the ball was usually turned over or popped up only for a Moray House player to be the recipient.

Following a scrum inside the Penicuik half the Moray House forwards and backs combined with some enterprising interplay to put wing forward Sami Alami over for what proved to be the only try of the game. Bret pushed the conversion wide trying to read the direction of the wind.

Following a lineout hooker Myles Thompson was caught on the head by a piece of nasty footwork by one of the Penicuik forwards and that was the end of his game. Another front row casualty! The front row now consisted of scrum half Graham, hooker Sam and centre Euan Martin.

The second half started much the same as the first as Penicuik's big forwards continued to use their well controlled pick and drive play. The Moray House pack had now got the measure of the Penicuik 8 and were able to contain any attack before the gain line. When in possession Moray House were able to make ground through the backs and good support running by the back row. Moray House were camped in the Penicuik 22 but some robust defence by Penicuik prevented a second try.

Following another attack on the Penicuil line Moray House were awarded a penalty in front of the posts and this time Bret stroked the kick between the posts to make the score 8 - 0 to Moray House. Penicuik had taken off their playmaker and their backs struggled to make any use of the ball their forwards were fighting hard to secure.

Moray House also made a few positional changes and all 5 replacements were now on the pitch. This didn't change the pattern of the game and the Moray House 15 continued to withhold any Penicuik attempt to score.

The referee blew for full time with the final result 8 - 0 to Moray House. This was a great exercise for the new Moray House players to see the difference in play between Penicuik and Earlston and adapt their defensive style to suit. Restricting any opposition to no score is a great achievement at any time but following the number of high scoring losses earlier this season this was a moral boosting shot in the arm for the Moray House players.

Man of the Match was RG Wilson who tackled strongly around the fringes, turned over several balls and supported the backs intelligently in attack.

Thanks again to Penicuik for agreeing to travel to the Jack Kane to play a development game in difficult windy conditions.