Morgan Womens RFC

Morgan vs Grangemouth

After some excellent pre-season training sessions and a postponed fixture vs Edinburgh Uni 2nds it was time to finally kick off the season and get the ball rolling on the road back to Premier 2.
A relatively young squad with a number of new faces, including some who had never played a competitive match took to the field in Grangemouth in what was to be a physical yet enjoyable fixture.

Captain Hogwood started brightly opting to receive the ball playing with the advantage of the swirling wind in the first half and soon had Grangemouth pinned back in their own 22, with Morgan dominating the opposition pack in the scrum taking 2 against the head it wasn’t long before Hogwood – Stepping in to the vacant scrum half position – broke through the grangemouth lines to ground the ball between the posts for Morgan’s first (and eagerly anticipated) try of the season. Unfortunately the young captains boot let her down with the conversion attempt but credit to her for a persistant run to score the try. Shortly after Grangemouth requested uncontested scrums much to the dismay of the impressive travelling support (all 4 of them), none the less the girls took it in their stride and played fairly and confidently and it wasn’t long before Hogwood crossed the line again for her second of the match. Unlucky again with the boot but a respectable 2 tries in ten minutes.

Morgan soon settled into the game and were playing well, Hogwood, McLeod and Van Schelven particularly effective with ball in hand, the rucking standard was particularly good with several turnovers in our favour and Grangemouth struggling to come to terms with the powerful running of the forwards, scrum half and stand off. Again it wasn’t long before Morgan were to cross the line with an adventurous run from the “flying Dutchwoman” to cross the line to put morgan a further 5 points clear.

Shortly before the half time whistle last years “most improved” player, Wylie took the ball for a jog, broke several tackles and crossed the line to take it to 20-0 in favour of the black and gold. Some further spirited play demonstrating fast, flowing but clean rugby set the pack up with the opposition camped on their own tryline which set up Allen for the pick and drive to cross the line on the stroke of halftime. Hogwood’s boot finally came to life and she slotted the conversion to take it to halftime.

Halftime – Morgan 27 – Grangemouth 0

The second have brought a much different performance by both sides with morgan often dropping ball and giving away penalities which let the visitors back into the game. Despite the even contest Morgan put another 5 points on the board due to some persistant running and a never give up attitude from new player McLeod (stepping in at 10 as opposed to her normal pack duties), breaking from the opposition 22, evading almost half a dozen tackles before grounding the ball over the line for try number 6.

It wasn’t long before the home sides perseverance paid off, Morgan giving away 4 penalties in 5 minutes and some excellent kicking from the Grangemouth 10 put them within reach of the tryline with their pack gradually working forward before grounding the ball (or not as it may have been) across the line to make it 32-5 in favour of the Away side.

Full Time - Morgan 32 - Grangemouth 5

All in all it was a good match for Morgan with new players fitiing in well to the mould with the Morgan regulars and definitely something to build on over the coming weeks.