Orkney RFC U16s 12 – Highland RFC U16s 32

Match Report
Picky - 1st December 2012

Despite the score line the Orkney boys played a great game of rugby against the league run away leaders at the Pickaquoy on Saturday. Orkney just ran out of steam in the final quarter of the match to leek two crucial tries.

The conditions on Saturday were very cold and wintry blasts made it difficult for both teams to get any fluency into their play from the start of the game but this suited the Orkney boys for the opening half of the game with their aggressive rucking, hard tackling and astute kicking play.
 
The Orkney forwards were well in control and had total dominance in field position for the first twenty minutes but could not get over the try line despite three close encounters on Highland line. In fact it was Highland with their only period of possession in the first twenty minutes that broke up the field and after a favourable bounce from a poor pass allowed their fist score, conversion missed (0-5).

The Orkney boys were soon back on the throttle and after successive pick and go`s from the forwards through Stout, Fraser, Pirie and Drever they set up Cammy Gray to ghost through the defence unopposed with Taylor Pilkington-Tait adding the two extra points. (7-5).
Orkney continued to apply pressure with their solid tackling from Sam Kennedy, TPT and Craig Russell and Highland did not like the tough encounters with bursts of indiscipline which Orkney punished them for with good touch line kicks made by Taylor Pilkington-Tait. Orkney continued to disrupt the Highland Lineout and contest for possession in the scrum was equal which was a vast improvement when the sides met in October where it was a one sided highland affair.

Half-time (7-5)

Orkney had the elements against them in the second half with the breeze having picked up but were off to a good start with Highland struggling with the re-start. The resulting scrum saw Munson pick up at the back and charged at their number 10, good support from Mark Sinclair, James Brown, Cammy Gray, Liam Moar and Andrew Shaw almost resulted in a try but the ball was knocked on and Highland broke clear to catch out the Orkney defence and run in down the right wing to score. (7-12).

Orkney again kicked off and were causing Highland problems in the wet, guttery conditions, Drever, Stout and Humphries all working very hard at the breakdown to spoil Highland ball. However the next ten minutes saw Highland score two breakaway tries down the right wing having created an overlap both times which started to take the game away from the Orkney boys. 
Score (7 -26).

Orkney did manage to pull a try back through Taylor Pilkington-Tait after the forwards created a solid platform for Mark Sinclair to feed the stand-off where he dummied and sliced through the Highland defence for a great try, next to the posts but could not make the conversion, (12 -26).

Highland finished off the game with some strong play from their back row to send their right wing once again down the wing; the Orkney defence were now starting to struggle with their fitness and could not stop the pressure which resulted in a final try.

Final score: (12-33).

Many thanks to Referee Fraser McNaughton for his Refereeing.

Coach Bruce Ruthven commented;

“A lot of credit must go to the boys today, what a terrific performance in the first half of the game when the conditions were so poor, the ball handling, rucking, tackling and all round team cohesiveness was great to see. We ran out of steam in the second half and lost our dynamic body positions at ruck time, had a few mis-tackles which gave Highland two scores but overall the best game of the season for the boys. We travel to Moray next week which will be a tough but very winnable game for us and hopefully seal our spot in the top 4 of the league.”

Orkney Squad: 
Taylor Pirie- Liam Moar – Robbie Drever- Craig Stout – Orrin Fraser – Euan Humphries – Sam Kennedy – Chris Munson – Mark Sinclair –TPT – Craig Russell – Cammy Gray – Andrew Shaw – Sam Croy – James Brown – Jack Scott – Ciaran Drever – Owen Harcus – Tom Gordon – Robbie Hay.