Orkney hosted Fife Southern last Saturday at Pickaquoy.  The game kicked off in near perfect conditions for Rugby, but the first 10 minutes were broken up by the sound of the referee’s whistle as both sides infringed with frustrating regularity, not allowing the game to get going.  Orkney were first to get on the score board after Captain Glen McLellan took a pass from John Deerness to go through a gap and feed James Linklater, who in turn fed Adam Towrie to score in the corner.  It looked like Orkney could be in for a good day but it was not to be with Fife scoring next after hacking through a loose ball and out pacing the Orkney defence to score.  Orkney were guilty of not playing the whistle and hesitating when a knock on wasn’t picked up giving the visitor the chance to get in front of him for the score. Fife kept the pressure on and pinned Orkney back in their half for about 5 minutes and looked like having a good chance of scoring again when John Deerness intercepted a pass, ran the length of the pitch and scored under the posts.  The conversion was kicked by James Linklater.  Orkney were immediately back on the attack and scored again after a quick pass out to Raymond Moodie fortuitously bounced in to the hands of captain Glen McLellan, who passed inside to Derek Sutherland who in turn selflessly popped the ball onto Al Watson who scored to the right of the posts.  The try was again converted by James Linklater.  Throughout the first 30 minutes Orkney seemed to be struggling to get into the game and lost a lot of ball in the contact to the bigger pack with the home players all too often standing off the rucks and mauls instead of getting in to win the ball.  Fife turned their pressure into points when an attempted kick at goal drifted wide of the posts, Adam Towrie claimed it, but a lack of communication saw the ball being knocked from his hands where the Fife winger pounced on it to score.  Half time score 19 – 10.

During the break there were some strong words uttered by the senior players and Orkney came out much more fired up and determined to make amends for a poor first half performance.  Straight from the kick off, Andy McGill pressurised the ball carrier into infringing and from the resulting tap penalty, the ball was moved to the left where an overlap was begging, but unfortunately the pass didn’t go to hand and the visitors managed to clear their lines.  From the resulting lineout, Orkney drove a couple of metres before the ball went back to James Linklater who slotted a neat drop goal.  The home side continued to pile on the pressure with and the next score came from a miss move to Adam Towrie who rounded his winger to score in the corner.  Orkney were now stringing together very good phases of play and looking like the team they should have been from the start.  Colin Risbridger, Al Watson, Andy McGill and Kevin Pepper all got on the score card with James Linklater converting 3 of the trys.  The final score was 53 – 10.  This was by no means a vintage Orkney performance, with the 1st half in particular lacking in urgency and not playing their own game.  The 2nd half however showed the team how they know they can play and hopefully they will be able to build on that and put in the performance they need against Aberdeen Wanderers in the Cup.  Particular mention should go to debutant 1st XV player Edward “Rambo” Russell who had a great game in the forwards and also to Derek “Stoff” Sutherland who was playing his first home game for the club for about 2 years after being out with knee injuries.  Kick off this weekend is again at 12.30 to accommodate the visitors travel arrangements.