Orkney U16s vs Caithness U16s Away 9-2-14 - Match Report

Millbank Rd, Thurso - Sunday 9th February 2014
Caithness RFC U16s 7 - Orkney RFC U16s 38

Orkney under 16s travelled down to Thurso last Sunday. The conditions were far from perfect. The pitch itself was in a rather bad state with rain and a dodgy pitch, the game was bound to have a few scrappy moments. The boys from both sides however played a very entertaining match with a few moments of absolute brilliance. The game from the go was a very physical game and saw some great tackles being put in from Liam Thomson and Arron Gibson.

Sam Croy opened the scoring showing some spectacular strength and pace to score the try. Conversion was successful by Sam Croy also. It was not long after the first try that Orkney were once again in control of possession and the ball was played again to Sam Croy who showed his kicking skills to retrieve the ball to score another try. Conversion was again successful. This made it 14 – 0 to Orkney.

Orkney were dominating the game and this time James Nicolson showed that it was not only the backs who can show strength and pace as he blitzed through to score over the line. Conversion was missed.

More good play from the Orkney forwards showed that Orkney were turning over the Caithness ball which lead to yet another chance to see captain Cameron Gray add another try to the list. Conversionwas missed. This made it 24 – 0 to Orkney

It was now time for the Gordon brothers to take the game as the ball was passed through the Orkney backs to Tom Gordon who scored a try. Conversion was successful. Tom Gordon then scored another try from a brilliant chip by Ciaran Drever over the Caithness defence which landed at Tom’s feet to see him kick the ball onwards to score in the corner. Conversion was successful. This made it 38 – 0 to Orkney.

The game was drawing towards the end now and Orkney had certainly put in a great performance but it was Caithness who wrapped up the scoring with a converted to try to finish the match making it 38 – 7 to Orkney.

Orkney played very well but man of the match went to Henry Gordon amd Arron Gibson who both showed they are very physical players with some cracking runs and great tackles throughout the match.

Coach Bruce Ruthven commented “The boys played well despite not having played for two months due to the weather, the pitch was heavy but this didn't cause Orkney too many problems.  We had 11 players out of our 18 man squad who are aged next season so I was very happy with how the younger boys performed. Orkney have a great chance in the Caley cup this season which will play out in the next few weeks so it's good to get a solid performance under the belt”

Squad who played is as follows:

Robbie Hay, Magnus Merriman, Dylan Evans, Jordan Basford, Arron Gibson, Liam Thomson, Cameron Gray, James Nicolson, Alistair Morgan, Ciaran Drever, Douglas Murray, Fergus McCivor, Sam Croy, Tom Gordon, Archie Mcphail, Harry Siderfin, Henry Gordon, Robbie Scott.

Report by Harry Siderfin.