As part of Scottish Rugby`s development in the north there was a boys and girls festival held last Friday which saw clubs and schools from across the north come together for training and competitive games at Highland RFC in Inverness.

Orkney had sixteen girls and twenty one boys take part in the festival which saw the teams have mixed results but ultimately enjoy their experience and go away with a greater understanding of the game and some much needed competitive rugby.

On Monday 31st March 2014 the Rugby club held the Easter Rugby Activity Day for all P1-7s. The morning session involved 33 P1-P3’s from 10am – 12noon meaning all players registered in at 9:45am at ORFC.

Thankfully weather was on our side so we were able to run the session outdoors on the back pitch of the rugby club. The session involved many different rugby based games, skills and exercises. The session involved games such as – animal walks, beans, stuck in the mud and stadium ball which gave the kids a chance to show there evasive running skills. These games were run by Bruce and Ryan.

RBS Caledonia League Division 1
Countesswells – Saturday, March 22, 2014
Gordonians 24, Orkney 31

Orkney RFC bounced back from the disappointment of home defeat against Caithness earlier in the month to record a fine away win over Gordonians at a bright and breezy Countesswells on Saturday, keeping them in the promotion chase.

With a sizeable travelling ‘President’s Trip’ support, bolstered by a good number of ex-pats to cheer them on, Orkney drew first blood with a try from Denis Hayes after a break up the right, converted by James Linklater for an early 7-0 lead.

A Level 1 course in IRB Coaching Rugby Sevens will be taking place at ORFC on 19 April 2014 from 9am-5pm

The course will be capped at 15 coaches and will be a first come, first served registration basis.

Caledonia Youth Cup U18 Shield Final
Canal Park, Inverness - Sun 23 March 2014
Kirkcaldy RFC U18s 27, Orkney RFC U18s 10

On Sunday the 23rd the Orkney under 18 team travelled to Inverness to play Kirkcaldy in the Final of the Caledonian Bowl Competition.
Orkney knew they were in for a hard game as Kirkcaldy had completed the Caledonian Midlands League programme unbeaten.

The first ten minutes of play was very even with both sides having scoring opportunities, finally  Kirkcaldy broke through the Orkney defence to score the first try, this was converted to make the score 7-0.
Orkney had a number of attempts at crossing the try line unfortunately either a dropped pass or frantic defence thwarted them.
As the half progressed, Kirkcaldy scored two further tries giving a half time score of 17-0.

Caledonia Youth Cup U15 Bowl Final
Canal Park, Inverness - Sun 23 March 2014
Aberdeen Grammar RFC U15s 47, Orkney RFC U15s 5

Orkney travelled down to Inverness for their scheduled final versus Aberdeen Grammar which was going to prove a difficult game versus a leading club in the south. The Grammar boys were well drilled and they made it difficult for the Orkney players to have any possession in the first ten minutes.

After poor tackling Orkney gave away two scores in quick succession to give Grammar a deserved lead.  Through tackling from jam Craigie, Liam Thomson and Ben Johnston kept the attacks at bay for several minutes but constant driving play and charging runs by the Grammar pack eventually took its toll on the Orkney boys and three more tries were scored before half time with one conversion added. Half time score (27-0).

The 2014 Easter Break activity day will take place on Monday 31st March from 9:45am & 12:45
Download an application form below.

10th March 2014

Over the last 3 weeks, Shapinsay Primary School has been receiving Tag Rugby from ORFC MA Mark Sinclair. It was a very active 3 weeks with lots of activity but also to learn new skills and rules of the game.

The P1-3s were first each week from 10:15am – 10:45, so the session was quick and involved lots of fun activity games such as stuck in the mud, sharks & fishes, Tag Bulldogs etc. Everyone loved the rugby and it was great to see a smile on all the kids faces while the sessions were taking place.

A couple of the participants said:

P1 boy – “I love rugby!”

P2 girl – “I want more Tag rugby!”

It was great to hear these positive comments from the pupils at the end of the last week.

Over the last 6 weeks, representative players from around Caledonia have been competing for places to reach the final squad of 23 to take on Glasgow and Edinburgh over 2 nights down at Murrayfield.

Over 120 boys were initially nominated by clubs with Orkney's Cameron Gray, Sam Croy, and Ciaran Drever attending the Caledonia trial

A squad of 40 was chosen for a training squad with sessions taking place between Mayfield in Dundee and Stirling University. Unfortunately Croy and Drever did not make the training squad.
The final squad was cut to 23 to play against Glasgow on Wednesday 26th February in which Cameron Gray was selected in the final squad and also managed a starting place at open side flanker.