Orkney 9, Aberdeenshire 20

by JOHN ROSS SCOTT

ORKNEY RFC's league hopes were dashed at home on Saturday when they floundered 9-20 to a strong and defiant Aberdeenshire side.
It was the first time the visitors had won on Orkney soil and the result struck a coffin nail into the local team's chances of promotion.
As a disappointed Orkney Captain, Al Watson, told Orkney Today after the match: "I think that's it as far as winning the league is concerned. It was a good hard game and there were a lot of chances missed. It's the fourth game we've lost so that is it."
One salvation for Orkney would be a win in their Scottish Cup clash against Waid Academy at Anstruther in Fife on Saturday.
"It would be great to get through another round of the cup and get another big team up here to Orkney," Al admitted. "We have a few boys missing for Saturday's game at Anstruther but we are not playing that bad, we just need our confidence restored. To do that we need another win under our belt."
What made Orkney's defeat on Saturday even more soul destroying was Aberdeenshire naming their two Orkney squad members Malcolm White and Martin Snell as men of the match.
The duo, both students at Aberdeen University, played their hearts out in the visiting squad, but their presence in the opposing side emphasised the difficulty Orkney has as the most Northerly League side in retaining its young blood.
The match itself was always going to be a tough one, but Aberdeenshire looked sharper from the start and throughout the match won most of the ball from the lineout and scrum.
With a 4pm kickoff, to fit in with the Aberdeenshire travel schedule, the floodlights were taking effect from the start, and the soft conditions underfoot appeared to hamper open play.
�Shire took the lead in the eighth minute when, after a concerted effort by them after a scrum close to the line, Shaun Mountain darted through to touch down.
It proved to be the only try of the match and one person who showed delight in the small crowd of spectators was the try scorer�s father Jeff Mountain who had travelled back to the UK for the first time in 50 years from South Africa to see his sons play in the match.
The visitors' celebrations were short lived, however, as two minutes later James Linklater narrowed the scoreline with a perfectly executed penalty kick.
The ball then swiftly made its way to the other end of the pitch and it was "Shire's captain Graeme Fergusson's turn to impress with a dropped goal taken from near the posts, which swelled the visitors scoreline to 3-8.
Cries of "Patience, Patience, Orkney" from the sidelines seemed to help bring more control to the home side's play. Young Linklater showed supreme confidence in his kicking, and Orkney had a near chance of a try after a good run by Roger Hall.
In the end it was Linklater who, again, bolstered the score with another superbly taken penalty kick from over 30 metres out, and five minutes later after a drive forward by Al Watson was stalled, Linklater again thumped the ball over the post to put Orkney ahead 9-8 in the 34th minute.
From then on niggles started to show and with tempers frayed and the odd punch being thrown after a scrum, referee Stephen Anderson advised both captains to give their teams "calm down" talks.
Orkney started the second half more confidently with that one point lead, but slowly their advantage was whittled away.
Out of the blue Fergusson dropped another goal for 'Shire and the visitors again started to pile on the pressure as torrential rain started to fall. The struggle got harder and 'Shire's No 3 Bekker had to leave the pitch with blood streaming from a head wound.
A further penalty was awarded to the visitors when Orkney tried to bring a man down in the scrum and Fergusson, after taking the kick, groaned "No. No", but the ball miraculously slithered over the bar for a further three points.
Although Orkney No 8 Andy McGill almost made it to the line on two occasions after this, Orkney's lights appeared to have gone out and Aberdeenshire took control as the downpour ensued.
Before the final whistle Fergusson slotted over a further two penalty kicks to take the final score to 9-20.
As they left the pitch, while putting on a good show of comradeship to the Aberdeenshire squad, it was clear to see that the Orkney boy's heads were down. Their league chances had been dashed.
Orkney�s Al Watson, Glen Thomson, Andy McGill and Roger Hall battled well against adversity; Linklater who sadly will be leaving the squad to visit Australia during the second half of the season put on a scintillating display of kicking; and the team's choice for man of the match was Derek Sutherland.
Referee Stephen Anderson, from Dyce, summing up the game said: "It was an exciting hard and fast-flowing match in which both sides piled on sustained pressure."
The hero of the Shire side, Captain Graeme Fergusson (who notched up 15 of his team's 20 points) told Orkney Today: "We are over the moon. This was a big game for us. We came to win and no one would argue that it was the right team who won on the day. After a couple of silly defeats we still have a chance of promotion.
As a comfort to the Orkney team he added: "The game today was played in the right spirit and we have every respect for the Orkney team. Having travelled this far today, I don't think we could survive making such a journey every two weeks as your team does."
The point on travel wasn't lost in the match programme on Saturday when Orkney Club chairman Mike Girvan stated: "We have drawn Waid Academy away in the next round of the Cup. This is unfortunate as it means four weekends away on the trot for our lads. A tough month and in my view unnecessary. We will be contacting the SRU to express our annoyance at the way this has turned out and why it is necessary to have three away trips in a row in the league.
�Common sense would dictate otherwise and surely there would be a free weekend during a home international when the fixture could be combined with a trip to Murrayfield.
The final word on Saturday's match, however, went to Malky White, one of the Orkney men in the Aberdeenshire squad.
He told us: This was my first game of the season for the 1st team and the first time I've played on the wing, I usually play scrum-half. While I find it a bit awkward playing for another side on Orkney soil I was out there to win. I really wanted us to win. I came up in the Shire team last year and lost. It was important this time that we won.