Published: Thursday, 10th December, 2009 3:00am

High lead from the front in deserved away win

Hillfoots RFC 12 v 16 Ross High RFC

Ross High put in a hard shift at Tillicoultry on Saturday, showing lots of courage and determination.

Ross kicked off down the slanting slope and put Hillfoots under pressure from the start, having several thrusts at the line, mainly through the forwards. These were repelled, however, by the stuffy home defence and after a clearance kick from defence Hillfoots took the lead through a penalty.

Ross resumed the attack and hammered the Hillfoots' line thanks to some excellent territorial kicking by stand-off Dean Jones and centre Bob Baillie.

Eventually the elusive score came after a series of forward drives at the home line. The visitors continued to put Hillfoots under pressure and No8 Steven Ketchin soon peeled off a ruck on the home line to score.

Jones missed this kick and was unlucky with a penalty attempt which hit the left hand post, but the kicker redeemed himself with a successful penalty to give Ross a 13- 3 lead at half time.

The second half saw Hillfoots rampant down the slope looking to erase the deficit but throughout the half Ross defended soundly and were not in the mood to concede the lead.

A successful penalty by Hillfoots saw the gap close but, on an attack into Hillfoots territory, Jones snuck a penalty over. The rest of the half saw Hillfoots flinging everything at High and were successful with two further penalties and unlucky with a third which hit the cross bar and rebounded to make a clearance.

The defence held, however, and refused to let the Hillfoots cross their line. From an overturned scrum late in the game, Ross scrum-half David Hughes kicked the ball into touch for no-side and four welcome away points.