|
Stirling County confirmed a league and cup double when they beat Morgan 34-10 in the National Plate final at Lasswade.
County looked comfortable for the majority of the match and established an early lead with four unanswered tries in the first 25 minutes though the second-half was a much more tense affair with the sides scoring two tries a piece.
It took just four minutes for Stirling to register their first score when stand-off Emily Johnson looped round her backs to get on the end of some good hands out of contact to score.
Number 8 Natalya Macholla added the extras before converting her own try little over five minutes later, 12-0.
After 17 minutes County scored again when player of the match, centre Danielle Stewart, jinked in and out of several tackle attempts as she sprinted in from the Morgan 10 metre line to register a sensational solo try, 17-0.
Johnson then closed out the scoring of the first-half when she collected the ball off the deck on the half-way line and set off at a blistering pace to arc around the defence to score. Macholla converted.
HALF TIME: 24-0
Morgan’s efforts in the latter part of the second-half proved they had plenty of mettle though they were to wait for their reward as Stirling’s Macholla crossed for an unconverted second before Morgan registered back to back tries – the first came when number 8 Kirsty MacIntosh carried the ball across the line amidst a bulldozing pack before full-back Kirsten Daly crashed through from short range minutes later, 29-10.
County then capped off a good win with a fine try started by outside-centre Jennifer Reynolds.
Reynolds shipped the ball to the supporting Macholla who drew in two defenders before offloading to wing Zoe Tierney to score an unconverted try.
FULL TIME: 34-10
STIRLING COUNTY
Emma MacKinnon; Zoe Tierney, Jennifer Reynolds, Danielle Stewart, Anna Page; Emily Johnson, Katie MacNair; Shona Hennessy, Kelly Johnstone, Pippa Low, Karen Hendrie, Diane Christie, Stella Chan, Hannah Smith, Natalya Macholla CAPTAIN
Substitutes
Ceri Beattie, Dami Bajomo, Catherine Thomassen, Paula Gludovatz, Lorna Murray
MORGAN
Kirsten Daly; Karen Brown, Alive Cessford, Naemi Grundler, Maxine Dunn; Louise Johnstone CAPTAIN, Sarah Bell; Jill Hotchkies, Ally MacDonald, Roz Galloway, Karen-Anne Nicol, Susanne van Schelven, Maggie Kelly, Rebecca Martland, Kirsty MacIntoch
No replacements
Player of the match: Danielle Stewart (Stirling County)
Referee: Malcolm Currie | 
