The match was agreed to be 4 periods of 15 minutes and as Caithness did not have a full squad Orkney agreed to 8 players heading across and this was changed at every quarter.
Back Row (l to R) : Finlay Watterson, Aiden Cooper, Declan MacLeod, Euan Knox, Thorfinn Sinclair, Alex Scarth, Alfie Reid, Brogan Russell, Ryan Linklater, Alistair Park, Kadyn Harcus, Isaac Deerness, Craig Morris Front row (I to r): Bruce Swanson, Scott Craigie, James Braddock, Christy McLeod, Angus Dougall, Sammy Laughton, Lee Deerness, Will Brass, Alex Thomson, Angus Brown |
The second quarter started well with good runs from Isaac Deerness and Brogan Russell taking Orkney deep into the Caithness 22. From a ruck close to the line Euan ran in for the games first try which was converted by Christy MacLeod.
Caithness then pressurised Orkney for a short spell but from a turnover Brogan Russell saw a gap and accelerated through it and outpaced the covering defence for a great long range try. Brogan and Christie then exchanged passes in a good piece of interplay and passed to Kadyn who shrugged off the last of the defence to score. Christie converted the try.
The quarter ended with some more good attacking play and finished off with a good run from the Caithness 22 by Euan for his second try of the day. The second quarter ended 24 -0 to Orkney.
Caithness fought back to score their opening try of the day which was a well worked move.
Isaac and Alex both made ground passing to each other at the right times to create space and then passed to Ryan Linklater who held off two attempted tackles and ran in from about 40 metres. Alex again converted.
Again Orkney attacked with Alex and Kadyn leading the charge and creating space for Isaac to run into and score the final try of the quarter.
The score at the end of the 3rd quarter was 48 – 5. The score was not formally counted for the last quarter.
As both sides started to tire there was more space created.
At the start of the quarter Alex Thomson playing for Caithness made a swerving run and then passed to Alex Scarth to score for Caithness.
Euan scored two more tries the best from inside his own half pushing off three tackles and then outpacing the defence. Tries were also scored by Isaac with Craig Morris providing good support, Brogan and Declan completed the scoring for Orkney.
Caithness finished the scoring with Angus Brown scoring a well worked try for them.
The players started slowly but played better as the match went on. There was also good debut performances from Will Brass and James Braddock. There was strong play from Thorfinn Sinclair, Angus Brown and Angus Dougall.
All the S1 players were nervous with their first introduction to U14 games but all played well and should be proud of their performance.
All the Orkney players played at least once for Caithness with a number playing twice. They played well and it was a good test to see some of the players playing against their team mates.
The 3 coaches picked the top three players were 1st Euan Knox, 2nd Brogan Russell and 3rd Kadyn Harcus. The S1 player of the day was Sammy Laughton for some strong rucking and support play.
The players player of the day was Euan Knox.
Thanks to Ross and Bruce for their help today.
R.K.