RBS Caledonia League Division 1
Pickaquoy infield – Saturday, November 2, 2013
Orkney 31, Gordonians 15

Orkney RFC maintained their 100% home record with a 31-15 victory over Gordonians to remain in third place in Caledonia League Division 1 at the half way stage.

Weather conditions were near perfect for rugby as Orkney U14's got their first opportunity at a competitive game this season with Caithness making a welcomed trip over the Firth. In fact it was a first taste of full 15 a side rugby for many of the 22 Orkney boys who turned up, with a large majority of the players moving up from the mini's this season. Three 20 minute sessions was the format, with S1 rules employed for the first third then S2 rules for the remainder.

On Saturday 2nd of November Orkney under 18`s travelled to face Aberdeen Wanderers. In cold muddy conditions with only 14 players Orkney faced a tough challenge.

During the first 30 minutes Orkney pinned Wanderers into their own third dominating possession and territory.  Good communication between the forwards and backs finally gave Orkney their reward in the 33rd minute, by turning over a Wanderers scrum leading to an accurate pass from Mark Sinclair to Taylor Pilkington Tait who was able to step inside and dive across the line and score. The conversion was missed. Unfortunately missed tackles from Orkney gave Wanderers the opportunity to run down the wing and score to bring an end to half with the score at 5-5.

The second half got underway with both teams looking to take the lead. Strong runs good passing from both teams from the start showed that the teams were well matched.

Through out the half forward passes, knock-ons and high tackles allowed Wanderers to gain territory but strong tackles and good kicking from Taylor allowed Orkney to fend them off. Throughout the whole game a seven man Orkney scrum were able to dominate a eight man Wanderers scrum. As the game went into the final 10 minutes fitness and skill levels began to show but a brilliant 14 man team fought hard to get a credible 5-5  draw at the final whistle. It was a very good team performance but a huge thank you must go to Les Howard and Bruce Pilkington for travelling with the team.

Unfortunately, Sunday's U16s game in Caithness is off due to waterlogged pitches. 
Pass the word - Contact Bruce for further info

“The weekend after the weekend before,” so to speak, and notwithstanding the best efforts of several players, and despite 28 players confirming that they would be on the day, only 19 players took to the field for the internal match, Married v Single.

There was a combined 20 minute training session / warm up before the sides spit off into their respective camps to fine tune their positional line-ups, talk tactics and practice their lineout and backs moves.  It was evident that the Married men would have the lions share of the experience, whist the Single boys had youthful exuberance and enthusiasm on their side.  A reduced size pitch was marked out, and with Erik Knight on the whistle the match was ready to kick-off.

RBS Caledonia League Division 1
Millbank, Thurso – Saturday, 26 October 2013
Caithness 52, Orkney 26

Last Saturday, Orkney’s 1st XV made the short trip across the firth to take on their nearest rivals Caithness. Buoyed by back to back victories and a strong week of training the team were confident of taking the points in this local derby.

 The game couldn’t have started any better with Orkney having complete ascendancy in the opening exchanges. The 1st try followed very shortly, with some superb broken field running being followed up by composed play by the Orkney pack enabling scrum half Gregor Porteous to claim the score in the bottom corner.