Convincing win for U14s in Junior Intercounty

Junior Inter-county Rugby
Pickaquoy – Saturday, April 26, 2014
Orkney U14s 60, Shetland U14s 29

On Saturday 26th April Orkney U14s hosted Shetland in the Junior Intercounty match which took place on the outfield pitches at Picky. With some heavy showers in the morning this made the game test the player’s skills to the max due to a slippy pitch and ball.

Shetland kicked off and straight away Orkney were looking strong and were piling on the pressure with the forwards taking the ball up the middle of the pitch. Shetland began to get sucked into the break down which saw Orkney use the space out wide to see Oskar Stout score in the corner. Conversion was missed by Orkney captain, Andrew Mulraine. This made it 5-0 to Orkney. Shetland kicked off but yet again Orkney took the ball well and with some excellent offloading from Harry Siderfin, Ben Johnson received the ball to score his 1st try of the match. Conversion was missed by Mulraine. It was now 10-0 to Orkney.

Shetland now wanted to stop this strong attacking play from Orkney and from the kick off Orkney dropped the ball meaning Shetland got their first chance to attack in the match. Despite many phases of play, strong tackles were made by Arron Gibson and Cameron Fraser to see the ball turned over. Orkney again passed the ball out wide to Oskar to see him score his second try of the match. Conversion was successful from Mulraine. The lead was now 17-0. Orkney wanted to keep this going and some great scrumming from Orkney’s front row saw them turn over a Shetland scrum to see Ben show great pace to score under the posts. Conversion was successful. 24-0

From the kick off, Rhys Davies got the ball and gained good metres for Orkney bringing them just short of Shetland’s 22. An excellent carry from Brydon Pottinger saw Orkney just 5m of Shetland’s line. The ball was passed from the scrum half (Andrew Mulraine) to the standoff (Connor Hancock) who showed quick hands to Cameron Fraser to see him score Orkney’s 5th try of the match. 29-0. With 5 minutes to go in the first half both teams wanted to go into the break on a high but it was Orkney who scored 2 quick successive tries by Rhys Davies making the half time score 41-0 to Orkney.

Orkney kicked off for the second half and it was clear from the start that the second half was going to be much more equally contested. Shetland were running hard and causing Orkney many problems around the breakdown. Shetland eventually got their reward by scoring in the corner with some good passing. 41-5 to Orkney. This made Orkney wake up a bit and strong running from Henry Gordon saw him score Orkney’s 1st try of the second half. Conversion was unsuccessful. 46-5.

Mistakes were then beginning to be made by Orkney, such as poor decision making, knock on’s and also many offside’s which lead to Shetland scoring 3 successive tries within 8 minutes! This took the score to 46-24 to Orkney. Orkney needed to stop this strong play from Shetland and did so with some nice play from all the team, to see Oskar and Ben score their 3rd try each making the score 60-24 to Orkney. With 5 minutes to go Orkney were getting very tired and were pinned in their 22 by Shetland. Despite some good defending from Henry Gordon, Jordan Brown and Glen Brough Shetland were able to score the last try of the match making the final score Orkney 60-29 Shetland. A great effort from both teams, seeing some great rugby played throughout the match. A massive thank you must go to match referee Ian Rushbrook who had a fantastic game, the spectators and also the Shetland boys for coming down.

Report by Mark Sinclair.