Match Report | Dragons v Inverness Craig Dunain 17-9-22

Saturday 17th September saw Orkney Dragons face their old foe Inverness Craig Dunain in their third game of the Tennent’s Caley North Region League 1 competition.

ICD had travelled with 15 but Orkney had a full squad of women champing at the bit to play some rugby

Things got off to a flying start with both teams keen to make the first trip across the whitewash, the wind and sporadic ninja showers played havoc with the ball handling leading to frequent scrums.
Orkney managed to dominate the scrums well, often stealing ICD’s ball while applying full pack pressure.

Sadly one of the ICD Locks sustained a broken wrist and with ICD choosing not to take up the offer of Orkney players on loan both teams had to reduce to 14 players under the “player matching” rules unique to the Women’s league.

This seemed to rattle the Orkney squad as they restructured their team and they lost momentum. ICD caught Orkney on the back foot and were able to run in 3 tries without reply.

The Dragons picked themselves up by the boot straps and Dragon’s Captain Donna Wilson powered over the line in the corner. The Orkney Dragons did what they do best hammering through with big ball carries coming from the forward pack and Paige was able to break through a second time for a try which Nikita Scollie was able to convert leaving the half time score 12-28

Orkney came out in the second half all guns blazing with a restructured back line and a lock playing 10 they dominated the game play once again.

The Dragons repeatedly threatened ICD’s try line and the persistence payed off allowing Paige Archilbald to dance over the try line after sashaying her way through the ICD defence.
This was closely followed by the new back line terrible trio of Helga, Donna and Vice Captain Hannah Cursiter who worked together off the forwards for Hannah to score directly under the posts allowing an easy conversion for Nikita Scollie.

Following a second ICD injury both teams had to reduce 13 aside and ICD took the opportunity to pounce scoring three breakaway tries through the disorganised Orkney defence.
The Dragons kept up the pressure but despite strong attacking play, dominant rolling mauls and well placed penalty kicks from Stacey Tualasea the team fell short of the line with two disallowed tries.

The score of 24-52 finished a very frustrating game for Orkeny Dragons who had played some very good dominating rugby a large part of the time. Simple errors in the wrong places meant they could not quite join the dots and put the scores on the board.

Thanks must go to Bryan Laughton from Main Street Properties for match day sponsorship and helping to drown the Dragons sorrows with lashings of prosecco and chocolates; to Ena Inkster for joining as team mascot and to Birthday Girl Shona MacInnes who volunteered to step in as Medic for the day.

Queen of Teams Awards- Forwards: Stacey Tualasea and Backs: Helga Barnett

J.I.