Match Report | Caithness v Orkney 8-12-18

Tennent's National League Division 3
Millbank,Thurso - Saturday 8th November 2018
Caithness RFC 36, Orkney RFC 16​

Caithness had the upper hand in the scrum in the early stages and used this to great affect to put them into a fourteen point lead.
The solid Orkney defence was holding the home team at bay so their number ten used the wind advantage to kick the ball in behind, keeping Orkney pinned back in their twenty two.

Under pressure, Orkney gave away two penalties on the five meter line, Caithness turned down the kicking opportunity and went for the scrum instead.
The scrum half went left from the first one and scored near the posts, the second try was scored by the number eight after a push over scrum.

Orkney with ball in hand were starting to find gaps in the Caithness defence from some strong ball carrying and managed to get on the score sheet through a Jon Tait penalty.
Shortly after Orkney were on the score sheet again, Gary Nicolson scoring a short range try, converted by Jon Tait, after a great break by Scott Rendall with his now trademark dummy.

Caithness 14 Orkney 10.

The comeback was short lived however as Caithness scored once more, this time out wide with a great move off the back of their solid scrum.

A Jon Tait penalty gave Orkney three more points to make the half time score 19 - 13.

Orkney were now in the ascendancy with the wind at their backs, another Jon Tait penalty taking Orkney within three points of the home team.
The scrum was performing better and confidence was high, two missed penalties either side of half time would have put  the visitors in front.
With only fifteen minutes left on the clock and Orkney on the attack once more, a wayward pass was intercepted by the Caithness winger, scoring unopposed under the posts.
This completely rocked the Orkney side after dominating the second half until this point.

The structure of the visitors play suffered, losing a further ten points from a penalty and a converted try - a hard lesson on concentrating for the full eighty minutes.
Understandably the whole team were gutted.

Scott Rendall was awarded Orkney man of the match.

The team would like to thank all the travelling support - for the more mature ex-players it was great to catch up with their old adversaries.

GC