Match Report: Perthshire v Orkney 21-10-17

BT National League Division 3
North Inch, Perth - Saturday 21st October 2017
PERTHSHIRE 22, ORKNEY 19

​Another great first half by Orkney, our structure worked well and we starved Perthshire of any good ball and what good ball they had was negated by the Orkney aggressive line speed which Perthshire could not cope with.
Perthshire were pretty one dimensional in their play which did not pressure Orkney at all in the first half. 

The first 25 mins was played in the middle third of the pitch until Perth put pressure on the Orkney line but they did not cross, Orkney were penalised for offside and Perthshire converted the penalty.
This was just what Orkney needed to raise the tempo and they became embedded in the Perth 22, this resulted in 2 penalties being converted by Danny Bain, which ended the 1st half and Orkney led 6-3.

The 2nd half started well for Orkney but we took our foot off the pedal and lost our shape in attack which helped Perthshire put pressure on. Bale scored a try converted by Danny Bain which put Orkney in the driving seat again and we led 13-3 for a good part of the 2nd half.

Perth replied with a try, Orkney scored 2 more penalties to take the score to 19- 8. Orkney took their foot off the pedal and this let Perthshire back into the match as they controlled the ruck area due to good counter rucking.

Orkney did not compete aggressively enough in the contact area so Perthshire managed to play their one out game and Orkney did not stop their drives quick enough in the last 5 minutes. Perthshire crossed the whitewash twice to win the game 22-19.

Orkney can take lots of positives out of the match but also we learned a lot about what is now required to stop our mistakes which all the squad from yesterday want to fix before next week's huge match away to Hillhead Jordanhill in Glasgow - 11am KO.