YOUTH RUGBY Match Report | Orkney U14 v Caithness U14 18-11-18

Caithness came over to play the return fixture with Orkney and as they only had 8 players, 7 member of the Orkney side went over to play for them. These 7 players were rotated every 20 minutes as the game was played over 3 x 20 minute periods.
 
Caithness kicked off and Orkney worked the ball into space and Travis Davis scored the first try of the day. Aiden Cooper converted to give a 7-0 lead.
 
Caithness pressurised the Orkney defence but strong defending from the home side saw them hold out. It was then Orkney’s turn to attack and some strong team work enabled Isaac Deerness top score a try. Oscar Payne converted to make it 14-0. Orkney kept up the strong attacking and scored again this time through Jason Scott and Oscar converted to make it 21-0 as the first 20 minutes came to an end.

At the start of the 2nd period Travis, now playing for Caithness, scored a well worked try and this was converted to make the score 21-7.
 
There was some good play from Orkney with Brogan Russell, Oscar and Jake Ross working well to work Jason into a try scoring position which he took. With Oscar again converting the score went to 28-7.
 
Caithness came back again and Travis scored two tries in fairly quick succession – both conversions were missed to make the score 28-17 to end the 2nd period.
 
For the 3rd period Caithness kicked off.
 
Orkney had to play well and there was some good rucking from Tommy Stockan and Alex Scarth, Harvey Slater blocking well and this resulted Orkney in working Christopher Scott into position to score. Aiden Cooper converted to make it 35-17.
 
Caithness attacked and were passing the ball well and looking to threaten Orkney when the ball was turned over enabling Jason to break and score under the posts to make the score 40-17 with Orkney missing their first conversion.
 
Caithness attacked again with Tommy tackling well. Caithness made a break and Oscar, taking his turn playing for Caithness scored to make it 40-22.
 
Orkney now stared to cut loose as Caithness started to tire. Jason took the ball and passed to Tommy who cut back into Travis for a try which Aiden converted.
 
Caithness made a break and were awarded a penalty which they kicked to touch for the line out. Caithness threatened but some good tackling from Ryan Linklater stopped them. Orkney won the ball and Travis took off from the 22 metre line to score with Aiden again converting.
 
From the kick off Alex stole the ball and released Jason down the left wing to score and Aiden again converted.
 
Caithness made ground only for Isaac to steal the ball and he took off. Caithness chased him down and caught him with the ball being knocked on in the tackle for a Caithness scrum. From this Caithness tried to attack but Aiden got hold of the ball and released Jason for another try and Aiden stepped up again for the extra 2 pts. The score now stood at 68-22.
 
Orkney recaptured the ball and work up the left wing and Aiden scored the try and converted.
 
Oscar run through the Orkney defence from the restart to take Caithness into the Orkney 22 which led to Orkney being penalised. From the penalty Oscar made ground up the right wing for Caithness but Orkney stole the ball from a tackle and the ball went to Christopher who advanced out of the Orkney half. The ball was worked out to the right where Christopher’s timing of the pass was perfect allowing Travis to score the try of the day and Aiden again converted to make the final score Orkney 82 Caithness 22.
 
From a coaching perspective it was a much better performance from the previous week and in addition to those mentioned, Angus Brown and Kadyn Harcus tackled well.
 
Well done to the whole squad during the game both for Orkney and when the boys played for Caithness.

RK