Match Report | Stornoway Ladies v Orkney Dragons 23-Oct-21

Tennent's Caledonia North Region Women’s League
Stornoway - Saturday 23rd October 2021
Stornoway Ladies 7, Orkney Dragons 33

Orkney Dragons set off on their long journey to Stornoway hoping to make it four wins from four.
Upon arrival it was a very dreich day, grey sky, windy and raining so it was going to be a challenging game.

The game got underway with the Dragons receiving the kick. It took a minute for both sides to settle and adapt their playing style adjacent to the weather conditions.

The Dragons were first on the scoreboard and after some defensive play, a turnover ball and strong carries by Stacey Tualasea and Naomi Bremner, saw the ball reach the backs hands for Paige Archibald run through a gap and score running over half a pitch. This was converted by Nikita Scollie.

This spurred on Stornoway and their resilience paid off taking advantage of some defensive errors and used their powerful ball carriers. A try and conversion saw the score level.

The Dragons stepped up their game, started to play more narrow keeping passes short. A spell of structured play by the forwards who once again got the ball into the backs hand, saw the return of Tiphaine Cazenave breakaway. However, Stornoway’s number 11 pace matched our backs and closed Tiphaine down. A few fouls by Stornoway gave the Dragons a penalty near the try line with Laura Baillie getting the try.

The second half got underway and the change of direction made no difference to the weather!

The Dragons remained the more settled side however Stornoway kept the pressure on. Some timely steals from Laura Baillie when Stornoway were pushing us back got us out of danger.

This enabled Shaynee Moar to score an absolute belter of a try. Breaking through Stornoway’s forwards and backs from well into our own half, being chased down and even with a tackle right at the last minute, she reached out her arm and scored right on the line. Converted by Nikita.

Fatigue was starting to set in for both teams but as usual the Dragons had a little more left in the tank. Another good section of structured play, released the backs once more. This time it was Donna Wilson who spotted the gap with a half pitch run to under the posts. Converted by Nikita.

Stornoway were not giving up and retained possession from the restart. Ali Marwick came on and made her presence known with some good tackles when it was needed. The Dragons have been working hard on their defensive line and that hard work paid off with big improvements noticed.

The Dragons had one more try and conversion left in them and both came from Nikita Scollie who used her strength and power to get across the line.

Final score Orkney Dragons 33 - Stornoway 7

Queens of the Team:

• Forwards - Shaynee Moar
• Backs - Ali Marwick

Thanks to Stornoway for being great hosts, Colin the Ref, Sean Corrigall for coaching us and everyone involved with organising the trip.

D.W.