Gerald Joyce scored the winning penalty with a kick that struck the crossbar and bounced over to give the Stags an incredible victory.

The match was played on a beautiful sunny day in Lerwick with a strong breeze making life interesting for the kickers.

Ross Sutherland played into the wind with the sun in their eyes in the first half and really struggled to get into the game.

Shetland opened the scoring after 10 minutes when one of their forwards powered over the line from close range after a period of extended pressure. The try was converted and the home side had a seven point lead.

The visitors struggled to cope with the wind and the home side used it to their advantage as they pinned the Stags back with some astute tactical kicking.

Some strong defence was all that stopped Shetland from increasing the try count.

Ross Sutherland couldn’t prevent kickable penalties being given away and Shetland took full advantage of this, scoring two penalties before half time to make the score at the interval 13-0.

The visitors kept their self-belief though and came out stronger after the break, and it only took a couple of minutes for them to register their first score when a quick ball out to the backs found winger Danny Parkin in space on the left and he went over in the corner. Joyce couldn’t convert from the difficult angle.

If this made the visitors believe they could dominate the half, they were to be proved largely mistaken, as Shetland played the conditions brilliantly, keeping the ball tight and mauling their way up the field. Their heavier forwards put the visiting defence under all sorts of pressure and they were perhaps a little unfortunate not to be awarded a second try, when a rolling maul went down over the try line but the referee ruled that the ball had been held up.

The game went through a period of near stalemate, with the visitors unable to break down the home defence. It wasn’t till the last five minutes that Ross Sutherland began to stretch the visitors line, and after some concerted pressure Mat Thompson crashed through a couple of tackles in midfield and dived over the line between the posts.

This took the visitors to within three points and Ali McKenzie’s conversion made the score 13-12 going into the last minute.

Ross Sutherland knew that they only had one chance left to win the match and gathered the kick off, and Mat Thompson made a break up the field, being tackled on the halfway line.

At the ruck Shetland’s flank forward was penalised for going in at the side and amazingly a Shetland player answered back to the referee, who therefore moved the penalty forward to the ten metre line and into range for Gerald Joyce, who needed every assistance from the wind and the crossbar to get his kick over. This was immediately followed by the final whistle and some exuberant celebrations from the Ross players.

Ross Sutherland’s next game is against RAF Kinloss at home on March 3 and they will be hoping to keep up their winning form against the pace setters of the league.

Please note that training has been changed to Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Ross Sutherland U16s 12, Mackie U16 25

ROSS Sutherland were knocked out of the cup in the 2nd round by Mackie and will now compete in the Bowl Competition.

Mackie scored all their points from driving mauls and used their experienced pack to full effect.

Although the teams play in different leagues, there was little to choose between the sides for large periods and the Ross scrum performed well, rucking was good, and the home team managed tries by wingers Ross Mellis (Dingwall Academy) and Martin McGinnis (Alness Academy).

Both teams tackled strongly with Ben Parkes (Tain Academy) producing some big hits, scrum half John Mann (Invergordon Academy) playing well and Fortrose No 8 Matthew Greig seeing plenty of action.

The team travel to Edinburgh this weekend, playing Grangemouth on Saturday morning before moving on to Murrayfield for the Scotland v Italy international.

The following weekend will see more cup action with also mini rugby (age eight to 11) starting up in Invergordon on Saturday, March 3 at 10am.

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend

Bookmark this

---