Crieff & Strathearn 19, Orkney 10

1st XV Match Report
13 September 08

Orkney travelled away to Crieff with only two changes in the starting team from the previous week with Kevin Sinclair in at tight head prop for Neil McCartney and David Titterington playing out of position at 10 instead of his preferred outside center in for Al Watson.

The odds must have been against Orkney from the start with a very poor and rough crossing on Friday night meant a lot of the team got very little or any sleep on the way down to Aberdeen and to top it all we were on the understanding that it was a 12pm kick off only to find that it was actually a 11.30 kick off which meant it was a very quick warm up before the game.

Orkney kicked off and it took them a while to get into the game as we always seem to do on away games with not many people looking for the ball.
Crieff scored two converted trys in the first half through some lucky kicks and the bounce of the ball going their way, the second of the trys ended being a penalty try, it was thought that a player was tackled off the ball this was of course the decision of the Crieff lines man!!! Orkney did get some points on the board though a Ramie (mark only say it once) Moodie penalty that he struck well to sail through the posts.

Half time score 14-3

Orkney had a lot of work ahead of them self in the second half and were ready for the challenge but unfortunately Crieff opened the scoring in the second half with an unconverted try.

This did spur on Orkney to some of their best play of the afternoon with David Titterington feeding Chris Guthrie who ran a perfect line to score under the posts, Ramie Moodie converted, score 19-10.

Orkney were awarded another penalty slightly to the left of the posts and opted to kick, with plenty of time left on the clock. Unfortunately the kick was just short and dipped under the posts Orkney kept pushing to try and get another score and with 5 mins to go Erland Drever received a pop pass from Eric Laughton who found a gap at the side of the ruck with a little help from Derek Robb, with only the full back to beat, Erland for some reason tried to go round him instead of over him and got tackled but did manage to find front row partner Kevin Sinclair with the off load but unfortunately the ball was knocked forward in the tackle.

Orkney kept going till the end but it was all over with the final score Crieff & Strathearn19 Orkney 10

It is very hard to not think about what could have been if the penalty try had not been awarded, the conversion would have been on the touch line and not in front of the posts, if we had scored the penalty kick, and if we had got the try late, but it wasn’t to be this time. There were a lot of positives no one let there heads go down like we usually do, everyone put 110% into it and never gave up, one of the home supporters comments was “you were very unlucky not to get anything out of this game” we still have to start our away games like we finish them I don’t know what needs to be done but there are signs that it is starting to improve.

Brian Linklater had another good game in his new position in the second row Edward Russell had another good game at 8 tackling hard and Trevor Spence as always playing well at inside center, this earned all three of them with the man of the match award with a three way split.
Eric Laughton is finding his feet at scrum half and played very well again this week along side him David Titterington played well and is fitting into the team and Andrew Cuddihy was his usual, with a lot of ball carrying and good tackling
Thanks must go to Eric Bruce and Graham Slater for travelling down for the game but did not get a run I have no doubt that they will play again in another fixture with both boys committed to training and pushing for places every week

Thanks to for Garry Burton travelling again this week it is a huge help to have some one on away trips sorting every thing out it takes a lot off the captain and vice captains  minds during the game.

1 Erland Drever
2 Ivan Houston
3 Kevin Sinclair
4 Derek Robb
5 Bryan Linklater
6 Steven Paterson
7 Andrew Cuddihy
8 Edward Russell
9 Eric Laughton
10 David Titterington
11 Phill Ross
12 Trevor Spence
13 Tom Croy
14 Chris Guthrie
15 Raymond Moodie

16 Eric Bruce
17 Glen Thomson
18 Graham Slater    
 Coach Garry Burton