The Rams welcomed their local rivals Lanark to Holm Park for the West Division 3 encounter. After a minutes silence the Rams kicked off in perfect conditions and soon found themselves having to defend.
Lanark moved the ball well linking backs and forwards trying to find the gaps. Rams defence held well but with a lack of possession meant the Rams had to front up and stay on the defensive duties for a bit longer.
First score of the day came for Lanark after 15mins with a defensive scrum for the Rams, the scrum under some good pressure five metres out Lanark got the push on and took one against the head and applied the pressure to push over and touch it down. Converted0v7. Rams response was quickly applied with ball in hand and the forwards looking for work. Cammy Little, Rory Drennan and Mark Walker Jones all picking their moments to spot the gaps and get the Rams going forward. It was the latter who got himself on the score sheet first, Lanark tried to clear their lines from the 22m, only to find Leon Kirk using direct rugby by running at the defence to put Stefan Jackson into open space and off the Honey Badger went up the line with a step here and there leaving players literally on their knees. He was soon caught by the cover from the full back, but good support and clear out gave quick ball for Coach Cammy to pick and offload over the defender to the apprentice (MWJ) and off he went under the posts. Unconverted 5v7 half time score.
Downhill the second half Rams felt possession and work rate was key if they were to put more scores on the board. Good exchanges from both teams trying to play rugby saw the Rams soak up some more pressure on their line but turn over ball and quick hands from Hooker Ryan Herdsman found David Steele and he set off in hot pursuit of a try down field, covering defence soon looked to close him down but an intelligent kick ahead saw Jackson race onto it and some clever dribbling ahead touched down with the conversion rebounding off the posts 10v7.
Rams soon found the nack for scoring again. Good forward play down the left saw Max Douglas working his forwards 5m from Lanark line, his pass found Coach Cammy who hit the angle towards the posts before offloading to Scott Galloway who stepped his defender on the inside and bounce over the line for converted try 17v10.
Lanark never gave up and continued to apply pressure, 15m out and a quick tap penalty gave them the glimmer of hope but after Kirk didn't retreat back and his tackle gave away another penalty in quick succession he saw yellow for his efforts.
Lanark decided to set up a penalty move and Andrew Chadwick and Macauley Irish soon found themselves tackling the biggest man on the pitch and for their brave efforts forcing the ball to be held up. From here the Rams scrummed down 5m from their own line Drennan picked from 8 and set off, a nice offload into the gap to Walker Jones who turned on the pace and set off to score under the posts untouched converted by Douglas 24v7.
It wasn’t long before Drennan halted another good phase of attack from Lanark turning the ball over inside their half offloading early to Steele who darted through the defence beating the last man to score, converted by Douglas. Moffat 31 Lanark 7.
Walker Jones rounded off his hat trick, after a perfectly timed restart from Lanark kicker straight down the gullet of Galloway who took it in his stride bashed the oncoming defenders offloading to Walker Jones who glided past the defence with ease to run inunder the post converted. Moffat 38 Lanark 7 Full time score. A good 5 point win with some great performances all round but credit to Mark Walker Jones on his hat trick, the hard work from his efforts towards training certainly paying off here.
SQUAD R Herdsman S Galloway J Little MWJones N Duncanson R Drennan C Currie G Cameron A Chadwick M Irish M Douglas C Little L Kirk L Fisher C Scott G Smith D Steele D Scott S Jackson Next home match 18th Nov vs Glasgow Medics ko 12.30 followed by Scotland vs New Zealand in the Buccleuch Clubhouse at 5.15pm.
