Youth Rugby Match Report | U18 National Youth Bowl Final 15-3-25

U18 Boys National Youth Bowl Final
Pickaquoy, Saturday 15 Mar 2025
Orkney RFC 10, Gala Wanderers 36

The Orkney U18s campaign towards the National Youth Bowl Final has been a long one. They have played up and down the country in order to secure their deserved place in the final.

Photos: Bruce Flett

The squad began their unbeaten run last September against Boroughmuir in Edinburgh with a 34-17 win, followed the next week beating East Kilbride 50-0 in Kirkwall, with Orkney finishing top of our pool group.

In October, the team was away to Livingston, who topped their pool, on a 2-day trip but it was worthwhile to come away with a 47-0 convincing quarterfinal win.
This led up to our semis with Cartha Queens Park who also finished top of their pool.
We had to play the game in Invergordon instead of Orkney due to weather related delays, coming away with a well-earned score of 26-17 to get us into the finals against Gala Wanderers.

We played the final on the 15th March in Kirkwall to a huge crowd of supporters from the club and further afield. The Orkney boys were primed for this game as were Gala who arrived that morning.

From the first whistle, both teams were applying the pressure, looking for ways to get that elusive first try. Our forwards were dominant whilst they have a very skilled back line.

Both teams were defending and attacking well and finally, Gala broke through and scored the first try of the match followed soon after by another.

Orkney were not to be deterred and kept on the attack with Murray Robertson finally driving over the line to score Orkney’s first try.

The score at half time was 10-5 to Gala.

In the second half, Gala had the wind at their backs and used that to their advantage by kicking the ball downfield to keep the pressure on Orkney.

Gala came back on and scored quite quickly but Orkney answered with a tremendous maul drive where Mikey McGee put the Gala defence the wrong way and passed the ball to Lewis Moncrieff to put another try against Gala.

We were still in the game but Gala was starting to find cracks in the Orkney defence. Our boys played with all the intensity that we have grown accustomed to as the season has progressed but they were facing a team that has not lost a match all season as well as played a lot more games too.

And this began to show, as they started getting a few more tries against Orkney. The Gala No. 13 was instrumental in the majority of the points gained by them. Orkney defended well and the score could have been a lot higher if our defence had not played so well. The final finished with Gala winning by 36-10 against Orkney.

The score does not reflect the match as we made Gala work for every point and even their coaches stated that it was one of their hardest matches this season.

On behalf of the squad and the coaches, we would like to thank all the supporters who came out to get behind our boys, it was great to see everyone out there even in the rain. The support the U18s have gotten this season has been a great contribution to the lads and a great reflection of the club and wider community.

Note that while they were in the middle of the National Cup, they were also competing in the Inspiresport Boy's U18 Caledonia Club League A at the same time which they went on to win in December.

The Orkney boys have worked hard all season and this is the culmination of all the training sessions alongside the men’s first XV and 2nds in some terrible weather, as well as consistent attendance of strength & conditioning together after school, with the club DO – Tattie, to improve their overall fitness.

The training sessions with the seniors has been invaluable as it has shown our 18s where they need to be in their game and proved that they can keep up with the high pace of senior level rugby.

We have players coming from the outer isles like Graemesay, Shapinsay and Rousay in order to train & play for Orkney and that shows the commitment and dedication to play for their squad and ORFC.

They are a credit to us coaches, their parents and the club. We couldn’t be any more prouder of how these lads have performed so far this season with their determination, skill, respect for the game and overall attitude.

And finally we’d like to say a huge thank you to our sponsors over the season, without their support we would be unable to compete at this level.

Team photo, Back Row L-R:
Sean Corrigall, Jeff Dougall, Darren McGee, Dylan Price, Finlay Waterson, Angus Dougall (VC), Lewis Moncrieff, Ruari Towrie, Murray Robertson, Kyle Kinghorn, Ben Sinclair, Ashton Bruce, Zander Baillie, PJ McGrath & Bruce Sinclair

Front Row L-R
Finlay Daintith, Michael McGee (VC), Cameron Boyd, Ben Paterson, James Braddock (C), Sammy Laughton, Ian Moar, Jason Buchan, Thorfinn Scott, Cullen Dick, Tom Hamilton

Match Report: Darren McGee