Convincing away win sees Lochaber in second place
Lochaber were looking for their first win of 2020 with this long trip to Moffat on Saturday.
The sun was out until kick off when the weather turned for the worse with icy winds, rain and occasional snow flurries.
Lochaber didn’t let the conditions get to them though and they scored in the first minute. It was a fantastic team try with Christopher Simpson making the initial break from the half way line, before offloading to Edward Murray John who in turn got the offload away to Alan Hamilton when he was tackled at the five-metre line.
There was good quick ball from the ruck out to Callum Boyd, who offloaded in the tackle to Ryan Davies to slide in for the try. A few minutes later, it looked like Lochaber had their second when Matt Murray kicked through and showed his pace to out run everyone to dive on the ball in the goal area.
Unfortunately, the referee deemed the ball to have gone dead. Lochaber worked their way back onto Moffat’s five-metre line and won a penalty, after which a quick tap penalty saw Simpson charging onto the ball and he could not be stopped so close to the line. Jonathan McCook added the extras to make it 0-12 with 10 minutes played.
Lochaber’s third try came four minutes later from a similar scenario, but this time it was captain Callum MacDonald who tapped and went crashing his way over the try line, with McCook converting.
McCook extended Lochaber’s lead 10 minutes later with a penalty after Moffat tried to play their way back into the game.
Lochaber probably should have had a few more tries before the break, but passes that were being made in the first 20 minutes were no longer being made.
Lochaber re-grouped at half time and didn’t have to wait long for their fourth try, ensuring the bonus point. Despite being against a strong wind in the second half, Lochaber made short work of making their way through Moffat’s defence.
Captain Callum MacDonald again tapped and went from a penalty in the right hand corner. He had a bit more to do this time but managed to get the ball down while several
Moffat players tried to keep him out to make it 0-27.
Moffat used the wind to their advantage to help keep Lochaber pegged back. Lochaber’s scrums were going well against a big Moffat pack with man of the match Christopher Simpson again filling in at prop.
Moffat had to put on some bigger props to try and cope with Lochaber’s scrum. Lochaber got their fifth try from a scrum in the right hand corner.
It was with an eight/nine pick and Murray couldn’t be stopped getting a try despite having his first chalked off. A rare venture into Lochaber’s 22 for Moffat saw the hosts come away with a try. Similar to three of Lochaber’s tries, their big forwards crashed over after a tap penalty five metres out.
After the failed conversion, both captains agreed to call time after 70 minutes, with weather conditions worsening.
The final score was Moffat 5 Lochaber 32 which puts Lochaber back into second place in their conference two points above Hyndland with a game in hand.
Lochaber have a week off before they welcome Cumbernauld back to Banavie on Saturday March 14. Kick-off time is still to be confirmed due to Scotland’s Six Nations match against Wales in Cardiff being on at the same time the Lochaber game is scheduled to be played.