Under 18s lose out to Highland in Caledonia Cup

8/3/2015

Caledonia U18 Cup
Inverness, Sat 7th March 2015
Highland RFC U18s 19, Orkney RFC U18s 12

On Saturday 7th March, Orkney under 18s travelled to Inverness to play Highland in the Caledonian Cup. Highland play in the National League and are presently league leaders. Last week they narrowly lost the National Cup final at Murrayfield. With this information in mind the Orkney team new that they had a very difficult task ahead of them.

After heavy overnight rain the pitch was going to be heavy. Orkney began playing into a strong wind hoping to contain Highland in the first half and use the advantage in the second. This worked well for over twenty minutes with some very strong tackling keeping the opposition at bay. Eventually Highland broke the deadlock with a unconverted try, with time ticking on Orkney continued to defend as a unit. Unfortunately in the last five minutes Highland scored two tries both being converted giving them a 19-0 lead.

A half time team talk was very positive the boys being determined to use the wind advantage to fight back into the game. It took twenty minutes for Orkney to get on the scoreboard and it was well worth waiting for. From near the halfway line Fergus McIvor collected the ball and kicked past the defenders running at full pace he passed the retreating players and picking up the ball without breaking stride scored a spectacular try, the conversion by Taylor Pilkington Tait was good.

This score gave the team some encouragement and was followed by Mark Sinclair scoring near the corner following a concerted attack involving the whole team. With time running out Orkney continued to dominate, to the relief of the opposition the referee blew for time before they could add to the score.

Although exiting from the Cup the team new that they had put in a very good performance and travelled home with heads held high.

Over the season the team has improved in all departments, special mention must be made to the front row, one of the teams weaknesses early in the season Robbie Hay, Taylor Pirie and Ross Sinclair have improved greatly and can now compete with all opponents.

This defeat drops the team down into the Plate Competition with a home draw against Moray on the 28th, this will be the first home game since November something to look forward to.

LH