A good start to the year for Orkney RFC
Orkney RFC 34, Kinross 3
Orkney played Kinross last weekend hoping to turn around the 39-21 defeat to the Perthshire side earlier in the season. Orkney were strengthened by the return of Al Watson and Rodney Spence in the centre, Adam Towrie on the wing, with Garry Burton and Jonno Heal adding impact from the bench. There was some youth on the pitch though with Alan Brown getting his first home start in the second row, Steven Paterson at No.8, James Linklater retaining his stand-off position and Jon Tait at full back.
A scrappy start saw several wayward kicks as neither side seemed certain about contact so soon after the festive season. But after this first flurry, the game settled down with the first line-out. Kinross showed their intention early from the lineout, with a catch and drive, before breaking off the back of the maul. The recycled ball being kept tight of short pop’s from the scrum half. The Orkney defenders however were expecting this after their earlier league encounter, and the tackling was up to the task. The Ba training also evident in slowing and stopping the driving maul, as a result Kinross failed to make much headway and generally stuttered to a stop when plan A failed.
Orkney on the other hand were solid at both scrum and lineout on their own ball, effective at the break-down, varied in their attacking options and dangerous if the ball went wide.
The first try coming from a 5m lineout on the Kinross line, an excellent catch and drive saw Roger Hall in possession as the pack drove over the line. Kinross with the slight breeze at their backs in the first half did manage a penalty of their own as Orkney ventured off-side, and with half time approaching Orkney should have scored a couple, squandering a couple of clear-cut overlaps and Al Watson knocking-on over the line. Half time saw Orkney retain s slender 5 – 3 lead.
The second half saw Orkney with the wind at their backs, and taking full advantage of it. The only time Kinross entered the Orkney half of the pitch was during restarts after Orkney had scored. The first coming early on with Lee Thomson rampaging to the line and linking with fellow Isles stalwart Adam Towrie to go over near the posts. Adam doubled his tally with a well worked move off the lineout, through a couple of phases before Roger Hall and Jon Tait linked to provide space for Adam to score wide out. Adam should have had his hat-trick but with the line beckoning the ball eluded his grasp.
In the mean time James Linklater extended Orkney’s lead by kicking both conversions and a penalty. With the try bonus in sight Orkney looked to the bench and Jonno Heal to provide the flourish, as luck would have it though he saw very little ball, one fine kick to touch and a couple of carries – with barely a tackle to make.
It was left to captain Al Watson to seal the victory with two fine individual tries, the first a typical scrum half break from the Kinross 10m line, the second a controversial opportunist try as Al fell on a loose ball at the back of the Kinross ruck on their own line - from a dubiously on-side position. James Linklater kicked one final conversion to give the final score of 34 – 3 to Orkney.
One of the few down-sides to the performance were the number of turnovers at the breakdown, no doubt something to be worked on at training.
A very encouraging start to the New Year, and hopefully with a few players back from injury and a couple more to resume training soon, Orkney should manage to string a few fixtures together and climb a few places in the league.
KNIGHTER
