Girls Rugby starts off on a high!

On Sunday 10th November, Orkney girls played their first ever under 16s match versus Caithness.  This was a greatly anticipated event with the girls on both sides of the Pentland firth having been in training for several weeks prior to the game and the large crowd were not disappointed with the commitment and skills on display throughout the match.

Caithness won the toss and kicked off to Orkney showed their intent right from the kick off with several strong runs which ended up with an infringement in the Caithness 22metre area. Caithness did well run to run out off danger but we're turned over after two consecutive crunching tackles by the Orkney centres Hannah Stead and Kelsey Harvey.  The resulting scrum led to Orkneys first try after the backs moved the ball out to the wing through four pairs of hands to Jenna Young who outpaced the winger to the corner, Keira Johnston converted, (7-0).  The resulting kick off went straight to Amy Kent who showed great strength to shrug off three tackles to score under the posts and then converted, (14-0).  Caithness then woke up and dominated play for the next ten minutes and scored two tries of their own through their captain and winger who showed great strength and pace, also adding the conversions, (14-14).

  With both teams finding their feet in the set piece and confidence growing with every minute of the game, great skills were shown in the offload, passing the ball into space, and real aggressive play at the breakdown.  Caithness were showing their experience and gained the upper hand when Orkney were caught ball watching and not pressing up as a line in defence which gave their opponents space to exploit in the outside channels which resulted in another two scores for Caithness, one for the captain and another from the second row, only one kick was converted, (14-26)  With the Orkney girls looking tired eight replacements were made which buoyed the team once more and were unlucky to score through Donna Wayne's after she found space out on the left. Ara schofield came very close to scoring after taking a quick penalty but the support was too far away and the ball was lost.  A series of tough tackles set the presidency for the remainder of the match and it was clear to Orkney that they had to raise their game if they wanted to take control back of the match. Amy Kent proved to inspire the Orkney girls and get them back into the game after another strong run left the Caithness girls trailing behind her to score next to the posts, (19-26)  Soon after Caithness played moved the ball well and ran down the middle of the pitch with Orkney missing five tackles to score, (19-31)

With ten minutes to go the Orkney girls rallied and with fresh substitutions made they took the game back to Caithness with Hannah Stead scoring after a period of sustained pressure led by Jenny McElroy and Claire Rendall who proved to be major strike runners against Caithness all day, the kick was converted (26-31).  The last few minutes proved to be very tense with the crowd getting very excited, strong runs by the Orkney forwards and recycling near the Caithness line finally gave the opportunity for Shannon Drever to drive over for the try, Keira Johnston held her nerve to convert and win the game. Final score Orkney 33 Caithness 31.

Orkney coach Bruce Ruthven commented;

"Both teams really worked hard today and gave performances which exceeded all expectations, obviously their is still a lot of work to be done but the hand catch and pass, evasion and commitment from both teams were top drawer.  Other aspects of the play will improve with more game time and experience, the girls will have learnt massively from today's game.  Well done to both teams, it's a real feather in the cap for North rugby but all credit must go to the girls?"

Everyone would like to thank all of the coaches for their efforts to date and also Fraser Mcnaughton who did a great job refereeing.

More photos from the match can be found here.