The local derby match was played on Sunday 16th December at Dounby and players from both teams were eager to show their skills and dominate in this long awaited fixture. It was obvious from the start of the game that Orkney were going to be too strong for the visitors but sparks of good play showed positive signs for the future for Caithness.

On Sunday 16th December, Caithness RFC travelled to Orkney with a squad of Under 14 and Under 16 players to compete in friendly matches with Orkney RFC. The Under 14s turned up in force with a squad of 22 players with all the boys being keen for a game.

The match kicked off just after 12pm on a bright but cold day, Caithness, having won the kick off, kicked the ball to Orkney who received it well, Orkney ran the ball back into the Caithness half but some good tackles stopped the attack, It was obvious at first that this would be a tough game with Caithness rucking Orkney off the ball and turning it over, they shipped the ball out but a strong centre combination of Archie MacPhail and Archie Porteous stopped the Caithness players before they became any real threat.

RBS Caledonia League Division 1
Picky - Saturday 8th December, 2012
Orkney RFC 13, Highland RFC 0

It’s matches like this one that make a difference at the end of the season, and this particular victory - by 13-0 over Highland - lifted Orkney to fifth in the league and gave them their fourth win in a row going into the festive break.

Match Report
Picky - 1st December 2012

Despite the score line the Orkney boys played a great game of rugby against the league run away leaders at the Pickaquoy on Saturday. Orkney just ran out of steam in the final quarter of the match to leek two crucial tries.

The conditions on Saturday were very cold and wintry blasts made it difficult for both teams to get any fluency into their play from the start of the game but this suited the Orkney boys for the opening half of the game with their aggressive rucking, hard tackling and astute kicking play.
 
The Orkney forwards were well in control and had total dominance in field position for the first twenty minutes but could not get over the try line despite three close encounters on Highland line. In fact it was Highland with their only period of possession in the first twenty minutes that broke up the field and after a favourable bounce from a poor pass allowed their fist score, conversion missed (0-5).

Orkney RFC continued their run of bonus-point wins with what was in the end a convincing victory over Ellon at a bitterly cold Pickaquoy infield pitch on Saturday afternoon.