Orkney RFC U16s make a positive start but can't hold on!

Mackie RFC U16s 36 - Orkney RFC U16s 17 
Stonehaven - 24th November 2012

The Orkney boys travelled down overnight on the Aberdeen boat on Friday 23rd november ready for a tough encounter with Mackie RFC. Once the boys were suitably rested and fuelled up from breakfast they made the short Bus journey down the road to Stonehaven.

It was an early 11am kick off on a cold and frosty morning to ensure the teams would get back to Aberdeen to watch the Scotland International versus Tonga. 
Play started with an Orkney kick off from TPT and the boys started very strongly for the first ten minutes with the forwards displaying great rucking, working the ball up to the try line by which eventually resulted for a try by Cameron Gray, conversion missed (5 – 0).

The game was then re-started by a Mackie kick off which Orkney knocked on and gave away a scrum which was taken against the head by Taylor Pirie and the backs passed the ball out for winger James Brown to show his pace and tear down the pitch and score a fine try in the corner, conversion missed (10 – 0).
Mackie once again restarted and play commenced in the middle of the pitch by Orkney until Mackie turned the ball over, chipped over the Orkney defence to catch players out of position and touched down close to the Orkney posts which was duly converted. (10 – 7).

The game was re-started by Orkney; Mackie broke through the Orkney defence and dived over the try line, (10-12). Both teams had equal possession for the next ten minutes but it was Mackie who made the break through after fine passing from their backs and poor tackling from Orkney which led to a converted try which made it (10 – 19) at the break.

Mackie started the second half with both teams showing determined play and good spirit. After six minutes Mackie passed out to their backs who made a good line break through the defence and some suspect tackling to score a try under the posts, conversion made, (26 – 10). 
From the re-start Mackie shipped the ball out to their wing that ran up the touch line to score a soft try which the Orkney boys were not happy about. (10 -31).

Play resumed with the Orkney forwards taking the game back to Mackie with strong runs from Munson, Pirie and Frazer and quality rucking from the rest of the forwards which gave a platform for Munson to go over for a great forwards try with Taylor Pilkington-Tait adding the two points, (17 -31). 
However it was Mackie that had the last word with another well worked try by their Back line to score making the final result Orkney 17 0 Mackie 36.

The boys did stick in well and performed very well for the first ten minutes which was a pleasing aspect but they could not continue their game structure and lost shape as the game wore on. 
Poor tackling and positioning cost the boys some soft tries which took the game away from them. The forwards worked very hard and the backs looked threatening at times. 
Work-ons for this week’s training is positional awareness and game shape. 
This Saturday the boys take on highland RFC which will be another stiff test against the league leaders.

The players would like to Northlink – Serco for the delay of the boat home on Saturday night so everyone could see the entire International match.

Match Report by Taylor Pirie.