Match Report | U14s v Caithness Picky 29-9-19

A squad of 23 Under 14s welcome Caithness for the return fixture from last week.  Caithness has 6 players so a game of 15 v 14 was agreed with Orkney having 15 for the first quarter and then 14 for the remaining quarters. Players from Orkney moved across and over the whole game everyone played at least once for Caithness.

The first quarter was played with Orkney on top for most of the 15 minutes with some good link play between the players. The first score came after some good work from Alfie Copland followed by an Aiden Cooper break and the ball worked to Brogan Russell to score.

Back Row (l to R) : Bruce Sinclair (Sponsor), Scott Craigie, Euan Knox, Isaac Deerness, Alistair Park, Declan MacLeod, Thorfinn Sinclair, Alex Scarth, Tommy Stockan, Ryan Linklater, Angus Dougall, Alfie Copland, Brogan Russell, Aiden Cooper, Kadyn Harcus, Ray Knox (Coach)
Front row (I to r):  Will Brass, Alex Thomson, Finlay Watterson, Lee Deerness, James Braddock, Christy McLeod, Sammy Laughton, Bruce Swanson, Angus Brown

There was great interplay between Kadyn Harcus, Alex Scarth, Aiden and Tommy Stockan with Aiden looping around Tommy but the return pass was just a little too high and the chance was gone.
Some more good play between these players again resulted in Kadyn being given some space to run in and score.
Then Caithness came on the attack but Alex intercepted to score. This was converted by Aiden.

Some more good play between a number of players including Thorfinn Sinclair, Isaac Deerness, Sammy Laughton and James Braddock resulted in Brogan running through the last of the defence to score.  Aiden converted again.
The last try resulted from some good work by the Orkney team in recycling the ball and then Aiden outrunning the cover defence to score and then convert his own try. The quarter ended 31-0 to Orkney.

The second quarter with re-jigged teams stayed much the same for the first part of the quarter with Orkney dominating. Some strong pressure saw Christy McLeod scoring, followed by Isaac Deerness outrunning the Caithness defence and then Euan Knox finishing off some good work by the pack. Caithness then scored their first try which was scored by Aiden for them after a good run.
Tommy then finished off the scoring for Orkney in the quarter. Alex converted twice. The score at half time was 55-5.

The teams re-jigged again and the teams ended up being finely balanced. The game was played at a hard pace with both sides attacking well.  Will Brass showed up well with some good passes and involvement with many of the players playing their best in this quarter whether playing for Orkney or for Caithness. Declan MacLeod, Ryan Linklater, Aiden, Alex, Tommy, Christie, Scott, Angus, Lee and Alex Thomson with Angus Dougall all ran and tackled well in this phase of the game. Finlay Waterston and Bruce Swanson both showed some good touches in this period of the game.
Euan Knox ran in a good try after some good team work from many of those mentioned. Caithness scored with with a converted try to make it 5-7 in this quarter.

The last quarter it was agreed to keep the sides the same as they were so evenly matched. The game was marked by all of the players playing well with strong tackling the order of the day. The only try in this quarter was scored by Alex playing for Caithness which was after a sustained period of pressure on Orkney, The final overall score was Orkney 60 – 19 Caithness.

The coaches picked the top three players were 1st Aiden Cooper,  2nd Alex Scart and 3rd Ryan Linklater. The S1 player of the day was Angus Dougall for some strong rucking and support play.
Thanks to Ross and Bruce for their help again today.

R.K.