MATCH REPORT | U14s v Ross Sutherland 11-11-18

Picky, Sunday 11th November
Orkney U14s 47, Ross Sutherland U14s 52

The Under 14s finally had their first home game of the season kicking off at noon on a lovely Sunday afternoon. With a nearly full squad of 26 out of 27 players it was agreed to play 3 x 20 minute periods.

Photo: Ray Knox

Orkney got off to their usual sluggish start with the visitors getting into their stride quickly with some strong early running. With the home side falling off their tackles ran in a try at the corner after 2 phases of play.

​Orkney worked their way into the visitors half. At a scrum on the visitors 22 Orkney unfortunately lost one against the head but some quick tackling by Lewis playing at flanker resulted in the ball being won back. From this the ball was worked to Travis Davis who ran into score in the corner and level the match. ​

Ross came back and again with some effective  running from their strong players and Orkney still falling off their tackles, Ross scored another try to make the score 5-10.

Orkney from the restart moved into the opposition half and Ross were forced to concede a penalty, Travis tacking a quick tap evaded the Ross defence and scored to level the match.

Orkney won the ball back at the restart with some good work from Aiden Cooper, Oscar Payne and Euan Harcus resulting in the ball being worked to Jason Scott to score a well worked and finished try.

Ross Sutherland then came back and with a strong run from 25 metres scored and with the first conversion of the day went into the 1st break with a 15-17 lead.

Ross Sutherland again made a better start to the 2nd period and with some quick rucks and strong runs worked another try which was again converted to stretch their lead to 15-24.

Orkney woke up and with good passing from Tommy Stockan, Alex Scarth, Scott Craigie, worked Oscar into a good position from which scored with a fine run evading the Ross defence.

Orkney then recovered possession from the Ross restart and with Euan Harcus and Oscar to the fore managed to give Travis some space and he ran past the cover defence to score. The scores now stood at 25-24.

Orkney were having a better spell and then managed to get the ball back and from mid way in the Ross half Jason Scott outsprinted the cover defence to score. Ross came back again and scored another try which owed much to some poor tackling by Orkney. With another conversion the score at the end of the 2nd period was 30-31 to Ross.

Orkney started better at the start of the 3rd period and from a line out 15 metres within the Ross half the ball went to scrum half Travis Davis who with a strong run across the park managed to outsprint the cover defence and score. Orkney now led 35-31.

Ross came back and after a sustained period of pressure near the Orkney line, and Orkney conceding a number of penalties within 5 metres of the line the visitors managed to power over. With a successful conversion the score now was 35-38.

Orkney were playing better in the loose at this point with some good tacking and rucking from Declan MacLeod, Thorfinn Sinclair, Brogan Russell, Euan Knox and Angus Brown resulting in another score to retake the lead 40-38. 

Ross came back and again camped within 5 metres of the Orkney line and the home side again were conceding penalties and spoken to by the referee to keep the tackles low. From this pressure a successful conversion was slotted over for them to take the lead again 40-45.

With time running out Orkney restarted with Oscar making a strong run into the heart of the Ross defence and when the ball was worked out to Travis for him to take another try which was converted to take a 47-45 lead with a few minutes left. 

Once again Ross came back and ran through some weak tackling to score and convert.
Although there was time to restart Ross held firm and Orkney could not add to their score losing 47-52 at the end.

​From a coaches perspective the Orkney side were slow to get into the game and the tackling needed to be better and lower with the speed to the rucks being too slow. Lets all get to training to enable us to work on it. 

Thanks to Ross Sutherland for the visit and to the referee and our caterer for the excellent food both sides enjoyed after the game. 

R.K.

Team Photo: Back row - left to right: Travis Davis, Christopher Scott, Lewis Kennan, Tommy Stockan,
​Euan Harcus, Oscar Payne, Mitchell Dowie (cpt), Alex Scarth, Harvey Slater, 

Front row: Thorfinn Sinclair, Alfie Reid, Alastair Park, Angus Brown, Kadyn Harcus, Jake Henry, Josh Sherriffs, Jason Scott, Aiden Coooper,
Brogan Russell, Declan McLeod, Scott Craigie, Christy McLeod, Isaac Deerness, Euan Knox, Adam Kirkpatrick and PJ Dempsey.