​Orkney Under-14 Sevens Tournament Sat 27 April 2019

​On Saturday 27th April the Under 14’s held their own 7’s tournament with 3 Orkney Teams taking part along with Caithness.
 
The three Orkney Teams comprised the Yellows, Reds and Blues. The format was a round robin and then the top 2 would play off in a final and the 3rd and 4th place teams would play off for 3rd and 4th overall.

Reds Squad:  Back row (left to right)  Oscar Payne, Tommy Stockan, Thorfinn Sinclair, Lewis Kennan.
​Front Row (left to right)  Declan MacLeod, Jake Henry, Kadyn Harcus. 

Blue Squad: (Back row l-r) Ryan Linklater, Harvey Slater, Alex Scarth, Euan Harcus.
Front row (l-r) Brogan Russell, Scott Craigie, Isaac Deerness.

Yellows Squad: Back Row (l-r)  Euan Knox, Aiden Cooper, Alfie Reid, Logan Harcus.
Front row (l-r) Travis Davis, Angus Brown, Christy McLeod, Alastair Park.

The tournament kicked off with the Yellows v Reds. The yellows started strongly with some good runs from Travis Davis, Euan Knox and Aiden Cooper with the Reds tackling strongly with Tommy Stockan and Declan MacLeod tackling strongly. Travis ran in 2 tries before half time, both unconverted. On the stroke of half time the Reds put together a good piece of play with Tommy, Oscar Payne and Declan involved before Thorfinn Sinclair ran in for an unconverted try. The half time score was 10-5 to Yellows.

​The second half with some strong tackling from Tommy but the Yellows took control and Aiden made a good break from inside his own 22 and carried it on deep into the other half. Angus Brown was involved with some good link work and the try was scored. Travis ran in the final try with two great side steps. The final score was 22-5 to the Yellows.
 
Orkney Blues then played Caithness. The first half was very even with some good play from both sides. Euan Harcus, Brogan Russell and Isaac Deerness were to the fore with the Blues. Caithness had some good play and breaks with the Blues defence holding up strongly with good tackles from Euan and Brogan in particular. Just before half time sthe Blues worked the ball well and Euan scored a try. The lead at half time as was 5-0 for the Blues.
 
After Half time Caithness struck back with some good interplay and scored a converted try to lead 5-7. The Blues stuck to their task with some good passing from Ryan Linklater and Alex Scarth to put Brogan into space. Brogan out sprinted the cover defence to score to give the Blues a 12-7 win.
 
Caithness after a short break played the Yellows. This was a good game with both sides playing some good rugby. Yellows made the first breakthrough with Travis scoring a well worked try. Aiden converted to give a 7-0 lead. Caithness fought back to score a well worked try to make it 7-5 to the Yellows at half time. After half both sides scored well worked tries with Travis, Euan Knox, Aiden, Christy, Angus and Alastair all involved in some good passing and tackling. Going into the final minutes it was 14 – 12 to yellows when a converted try by the Yellows made the game safe at 21-12.
 
Reds then played the Blues. The Blues played some good rugby with Alex, Isaac, Euan Harcus and Brogan all heavily involved with Tommy, Declan and Oscar tacking hard for the reds. Isaac and Brogan scored well worked tries to lead 12-0 at half time. The reds fought back with a well worked try with Jake Henry, Kadyn Harcus, Tommy, and Lewis Kennan all involved to work Oscar in for the try which was converted. While the game was now close the Blues fought back and a Brogan try sealed a 19-7 win.
 
After another break the Blues were back onto play the Yellows. This was probably the game of the tournament as both sides made some great breaks only to be stopped by some strong tackling. For the Yellows,  Aiden, Euan Knox, Travis, Angus and Christy were all having strong games with good moments from Alastair, Alfie and Logan. For the Blues  Euan Harcus, Alex, Isaac and Brogan were having strong games with some good moments from Ryan and Scott. The Yellows struck first with Angus, Alastair and Euan Knox passing well to put Aiden into space to allow him to run in for the try which was converted. The Blues struck back with Alex winning the ball from Aiden inside the Blues 22. Alex attacked and played Brogan into space who then ran in for the try. Half time was 7-5 to the Yellows. The second half followed the same pattern with both sides attacking and defending well. The breakthrough which sealed the match was a great try from the Yellows with Travis having made a great break but was tackled near the 22. The ball was played to Euan Knox who had supported well to make the final score 12-5 to the Yellows.
 
The Reds then played Caithness and Caithness produced their strongest performance with some really strong off loads to lead 17-0 at half time. The second half was much more even with the Reds playing some good rugby but only having the one try from Tommy to show for their efforts. Caithness also scored one to have a final score of 24-5.
 
With the round robin complete the Reds were to play Caithness in the 3rd / 4th place play off and the Yellows and Blues would contest the final. Both games would be longer than the round robin games.
 
When the Reds played Caithness it was a much more even first half with Caithness initially heading into a 12-0 lead. The Reds fought back with Tommy scoring a good try to bring it back to 12-7. Just before half time the Reds camped close to the Caithness line and had 3 good chances to score with Caithness tackling hard to stop them. One final lunge from the Reds but they knocked the ball just at the Caithness line and then with the advantage Caithness worked the ball to break out and score to end the half. Rather than being at least 12-12 it was now 19-7. This seemed to knock the Reds back and fill Caithness with confidence as they scored some quick tries in the second half. The Reds then scored two tries from Oscar to close the gap before Caithness had the last word to score. Caithness running out winners 43-19.

​The final between the Yellows and Blues was not as even a contest as their earlier match. A couple of the Yellow players were struggling with knocks and the Blues took advantage. The Blues playing some really good passing rugby scored three tries through Isaac and 2 from Brogan with Travis scoring for the Yellows to make it 15-7 at half time. The second half saw some more good play with Brogan and Alex (2) scoring further tries with Travis replying for the Yellows. The Blues ran out winners 36-14 to claim the Cup.

Winners - Blues with Karen Davies

​After the matches the awards were made with the Coaches giving their Coaches Player Awards:

​The winners were: Red – Tommy Stockan, Yellow – Angus Brown, Blue – Euan Harcus and Caithness – Nathan Tait.

​The Player of the Tournament was decided by the Adrian the referee who awarded it to Alex Scarth who was given the Players Shield by the sponsor – Erik Tait of Robertsons Orkney.
​
The Coaches then awarded and presented the season awards.
 
The Players Players was awarded jointly to Travis Davies and Oscar Payne as the votes were tied between the two and awarded by Ray Knox.
 
The Coaches Player voted by the coaches was awarded to Euan Harcus.

R.K.