U18 Deeside V Orkney/Caithness

Deeside under 18s 5 Orkney/Caithness under 18s 26

The Orkney and Caithness teams travelled separately to Banchory to play Deeside in a Caledonian Conference league game, a hard game was expected as Deeside remained unbeaten in league games to date.

By kick off time it had been raining steadily for two hours and underfoot conditions where very soft.

In the early stages Deeside had the majority of possession and territory but the visitors managed to defend well and prevented them from scoring. As the game progressed the Orkney/Caithness team settled in and started to make more progress into the Deeside half, after 10 minutes of play this resulted in the first score with second row player Euan Humphries forcing his way over for a very good try. Sam Croy converted to give a 7 point lead. Getting points on the board gave the team confidence and they started to dominate the game, this eventually resulted in a further score with Fergus Macivor breaking from deep to score a individual try, the conversion was missed leaving the score 12-0 at the half time break.

Both teams contributed to make this a good game of Rugby in very trying conditions. As the second half started Deeside made it plain that they had not given up on the game but the visitors withstood the pressure and when after 15 minutes Shaun Gunn received the ball five meters out nobody was going to stop him getting over for a further try that Sam converted.

All the effort that Deeside showed was eventually rewarded with a try, the conversion failed leaving the score at 19-5. A period of very good defending by the visitors prevented them from scoring any further points and at the other end the lead was increased when Craig Chambers playing his first game after a spell out injured scored a good try, Sam Croy once again converted to give a final score of 26-5 he was also nominated man of the match in recognition of his committed play and the manner in which he encourages other members of the team.

This was a very good performance after a five week break partly caused by teams not making the effort to travel to Orkney. This coming week is different with Garnock a team from Ayrshire travelling up to play in the Semi Final of the National Bowl, they are up for two nights this commitment is appreciated.

Kick off at Picky will be at 12.30, a chance to see the future of the club performing; the winner of this game goes on to the final at Murrayfield on the 29th of November.