Youthful Stornoway go down to Moray

Played in perfect conditions at Bayhead in Stornoway it was yet again another youthful Stornoway side which took to the turf and they started brightly. The pattern of the early play showed the home side forcing passes, instead of going through phases early on. They were also guilty giving Moray backs too much space and time to run at them – perhaps showing the visitors a little too much respect.

A penalty and two converted tries for Moray early on didn’t help in what was always likely to be a tightly fought contest.

One further unconverted try for Moray and a steered home penalty by Alan Farrell left the score 22-3 to Moray at half time.

The second-half was an even more tightly contested affair as the sides scrapped for possession and territory. Stornoway’s line speed improved dramatically forcing errors but Moray dominated the scrums, making it difficult for Stornoway to take full advantage.

Alan Farrell had another good game at fullback. The forwards put in a hard shift. Strong running from Rick Macleod, Shaun Smith and Innes Maclean, with the hard working Alick Graham doing a lot of the unseen work at the coalface.

Moray scored a converted try on the last play of the match, their outside centre bouncing out of some tired tackles, to give them a try bonus and a flattering score line.

All things considered this was another performance to be proud of by the Stornoway youngsters – the average age of the team has just about halved in the last five years.