Match Report: U14s & U16s v Caithness 20-11-16

Last Sunday Caithness Under 14 and 16 teams travelled across to play Orkney, unfortunately the under 16 squad arrived with only eight players. With Orkney having 22 players available it was possible for a 15 a side game to take place. 7 of the boys very sportingly agreed to play the first half for the opposition and it was agreed that they would be swapped over at half time. ​

​The game commenced with Caithness taking the lead in the first few minutes with a try for Caithness the conversion being missed. This lead was short lived with the more experienced Orkney team taking control and scoring tries at regular intervals. The Orkney players swapped over at half time but with the school using the game as O Grade Assessment the more experienced players had to carry on playing for Orkney. Half way through the second half with the game becoming to one sided with the agreement of the school assessor some of the more experienced players changed over. This allowed the remainder of the game to be more competitive.

The plus side of the day was that the whole squad had a full game of Rugby something that is not always easy to achieve. After consulting Ian Rushbrook who kindly refereed,  the score was recorded 96-17 to Orkney.

Next Saturday the teams are at home to Ross Sutherland the only team to have inflicted a defeat on the under 16 this season making this game a potential league decider.

Under-14s

It was a stronger squad which took the field than was the case for the away game against Huntly the previous week with a full complement of subs also available.

It was an even start to the game with the teams looking evenly matched with Orkney scoring an unconverted try through Tom McArthur with Caithness replying which were to be the only scores in the first half. Finlay Cooper was controlling the tempo from scrum half and there was some good driving through the forwards with Archie Flett, Cameron Milne and Marcus Sclater prominent whilst Tom McArthur, Finn Hancock and Alexander Scott were making full use of the extra space afforded to them on the centre pitch.

The second half continued with an even matched game but Orkney using the impact off the bench to their advantage with Reece Worthington and Ewan Stevenson particularly to the fore in attack and defence and Orkney used the extra possession to score three tries through Archie Flett, Cameron Milne and a second Tom McArthur try, two of which were converted by Cameron Foy whilst holding Caithness scoreless in the second half.

A very good all round team performance with vastly improved tackling and good support play through all involved which should provide confidence going into the next game.        

L.H.