Photos courtesy of Michael MacLeod of Style Studio
(www.stylestudiophotography.co.uk)

While the First XV played Aberdeen Wanderers in the second round of the BT Cup, Orkney’s Second team took on their Caithness counterparts in the second leg of the Lynn Cup.  Trailing by 13 – 3 from the first match in September, the Orkney side needed a good performance to close the gap.  And a good performance the Orkney side gave, both individually and collectively, as they battled their way to a well- deserved 21 – 17 victory.

The tight nature of the match was reflected in the length of time for the first score to arrive.  Twenty minutes elapsed before pressure in the Caithness 22 saw the ball spun from left to right down the Orkney back line, before Kevin Spence managed to off-load a pass to Alan Pirie who scampered in to the corner.  Andrew Cromarty converted.  Unfortunately this score, rather than composing the Orkney side saw them relax and allow Caithness to fight back.  Despite excellent cover tackling from George Thomson and Dave McRobbie, Caithness managed to bundle over the line to pull the score back to 7 – 5.

A second Caithness try, from a scuffed clearance kick, added further pressure, with Caithness turning around at half time leading 10 – 7.  With the wind, and sun in Orkney’s favour in the second half all was still to play for.  But a poor start saw a converted try extend the Caithness lead to 17 – 7.

Give the Orkney players their due though, they picked themselves up, got back into the Caithness half and searched for another score of their own.  Some excellent Caithness defence made it look like hard work as they repeatedly cleared their lines of the danger.  Orkney stuck to it though and some excellent line-out drives took Orkney to the Caithness try line.  Some strong running from the midfield backs – Andrew Cromarty, Kevin Spence, James Linklater Snr and Dave McRobbie – providing an effective target for the Orkney pack to recycle possession.  Quick ball from such a run saw Andrew Cromarty cut-back on the angle and score beside the posts.  Converting his own try Orkney were still trailing 17 – 14.

More intense team effort from Orkney saw them back into the Caithness 22 again.  As the clock ran down, it looked as though fate would be against Orkney, but another aggressive run from James Linklater Snr saw him break through close to the posts.  Andrew Cromarty converted his third conversion to make the score 21 –17, with less than 5 minutes left on the clock.  Once in the lead though the Orkney side sent palpitations through the growing crowd as they appeared to ease off, only some good scrambling defence allowed Orkney to hold out for a well deserved team victory.

So with two further legs to go in this years cup, the aggregate score is 30 – 24 in Caithness favour.  The remaining ties are in Caithness on 4th February, and in Orkney on 25th February.

Before then though, the Seconds have Aberdeen Wanderers away on the 19th November and Strathspey away on the 17th December.  With places for grabs in both First and Second sides keep the numbers coming to training and keep the Internal League standards high.  Please try and make yourselves available for these away matches and make selection as competitive as possible.

Orkney:
Mark Groundwater, Andrew Milne, Rab Innes, Rob Thomson, Stewart Rendall, Kevin Groundwater, David Leisk, Stuart Hagan, Erik Laughton, Andrew Cromarty, Gary Kemp, Kevin Spence, Dave McRobbie, Alan Pirie, George Thompson, Neil McCartney, Eric Bruce, Kenneth Kent, Magnus Currie, James Linklater Snr.

Knighter