Ross Sutherland 15 Moray 20: Tight win keeps up 100 per cent record
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Moray made it three wins from three in the Caledonia North Region League Division 2 with a hard-fought 20-15 success over Ross Sutherland in Invergordon on Saturday, writes Graham Stables.
The win keeps Moray top of the seven-team table – although they have played a game more than their rivals.
It was the home side that dominated the early part of the match, though, opening the scoring on 12 minutes.
The ball was pinched at a line out and moved wide to the centre, who broke the tackle and scored a converted try for a 7-0 lead.
It was pretty much one-way at this point and four minutes later, Ross extended their lead.
The home side were quicker to a break down and turned over possession. The ball was moved wide and, after a number of passes, the line was reached out wide, this time for an unconverted try and a 12-0 lead.
Around the 25-minute mark, Moray put their first points on the board.
Some good hands and charging play took them into touch, close by the goal-line. Ross took and cleared to 18 metres out. Clean ball was secured and very quickly moved wide to wing Archie Duncan, who managed to hold off two tacklers and squeak in at the corner.
Stand-off Rory Millar superbly landed the wide kick to narrow the lead to 12-7.
Ross tried to regain control in the second half, but both sides were cancelling each other out.
In the 68th minute, the Ross scrum-half was yellow carded for a high tackle on Millar, who narrowed the lead to 12-10 from the resultant penalty.
From the restart kick, the Elgin side scored the pick of the afternoon’s tries. The ball was gathered by Millar and, in contact, he offloaded to prop Lewis Scott who barged his way through the home defence and made around 40 metres before being stopped. He managed to offload to supporting centre Cameron Hughes who made ground, offloaded to wing-forward Aaron Ruck who reciprocated to allow Hughes to score. Millar added the conversion for 17-12.
Moray were now enjoying their best period of the match with good ground being made by the forwards as well as some astute kicking by the backs putting real pressure on the home side.
In the 74th minute, Moray extended the lead to 20-12 when Millar landed a penalty for offside around the 22.
The Invergordon side rallied late on in the match and in the 79th minute were handed a penalty, 18 metres out, in front of the posts.
With a view to looking for the win, they kicked the penalty for 20-15 to set up a final opportunity from the restart.
But Moray held on for the win as Millar put up a high drop-kick, which created the opportunity to turn over ball at the breakdown and kick the ball to touch.
This Saturday, Moray have another big game when they welcome Aberdeenshire to Morriston looking to make it four wins from four in the league.
