Youth Rugby Match Report | U18s Home v Huntly 17-8-25

The opening match of the ORFC season was held at the Picky outfields by the U18s squad.

After a very successful 24/25 season of winning the Caledonia Club League, Caledonia Youth Bowl and also finalists in the National Cup, the lads were ready to start another positive season campaign.

First up was our opening Caledonia Youth League match against Huntly. The lads were looking forward to this game and in particular, the newly moved up U18s owed Huntly for the U16s match last season where they got knocked out of the National cup.

The game kicked off just after midday where we had a 2-minute silence to remember Rab Muir, who was a big part of the club for many years, who sadly passed away last week.

Conditions were great for the match and from the start, Orkney were dominating the match with very strong rucking & scrummaging (pushing Huntly off the ball 4 times!!) and carries by the forwards and the backs were making great metres up the pitch with McGee and Ronan working together to keep the ball moving through the backs.

Within the first 5 minutes, Huntly were down a player from an attempt to stop Murray charging at full speed. Both teams were down to 14 a side. Orkney kept on the pressure and Tom scored the first try of the season after a Huntly fumble at their try line from their own scrum. Zander missed the conversion but it would be his only miss of the day.

Orkney got the 2nd try of the day after Ronan carried the ball over half the pitch to offload to Tom. Zander got the conversion to make the score 12-0. Orkney never relented and kept the pressure on, with Zander scoring both the next try and conversion.

19-0 now but not for long, as Moar made yards down the line to pass to McGee to score and Zander to convert bringing the score to 26-0. On the hunt for more points was Ashton who scored the next try with Zander to convert again, bringing it to 33-0. Zander got another try and conversion to make it 40-0. Just before the halftime whistle, Ashton made a try saving tackle to stop Huntly scoring.

Orkney kicked off the 2nd half and quite quickly, Balfour dived over the line to score his first U18s try with another conversion by Zander, making it 47-0. A lot of attacking play by Orkney and to give Huntly their due, they kept their defence up with a 13-man squad due to another player coming off and held Orkney out until a textbook tackle by Ronan to stop Huntly scoring resulted in the ball getting out to Scarth to score the final try of the game and Zander to convert with the final kick of the ball.

Orkney’s win was down to their determination, pure dominance in the scrums and speed of the ball out the back of the rucks. The coaches were pleased with the commitment and communication in defence to keep Huntly to nil even though they could move the ball about when they got chance.

A great start to the season for the U18s and the club. Thanks to all the supporters that came out to cheer the lads on and thanks to Isla & Anna in the kitchen for the lovely post-match grub.

Man of the Match was Tom Hamilton. Special mention to the boys that have moved up from U16s, they were not out of place in the squad and we look forward to watching them progress through the season.

L to R Back Row:
Darren McGee, PJ McGrath, Michael Scarth, Zander Baillie, Balfour Norquoy, Murray Robertson, Mikey McGee (VC), Ben Sinclair (VC), Magnus Montgomery, Finlay Daintith, Finlay Flett & Jeff Dougall
L to R Front Row:
Ronan Hamilton, Jack Innes, Cullen Dick, Owen Spence, Ian Moar, Tom Hamilton (C), Cameron Boyd & Ashton Bruce


D.M.