​Ross Sutherland 12 Orkney/Caithness 29

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On Saturday 21st November, the Orkney under 18 squad travelled across the Firth to meet up with the Caithness contingent to travel down to Invergordon to take on Ross Sutherland in a Caledonian North fixture.

By kick off time the early snow had disappeared leaving a brisk day with little wind.

The visitors received the ball from the kick off and had points on the board before the opposition laid a hand on the ball. Shaun Gunn used his upper body strength to break through the defence and off loaded to Sam Croy who scored under the posts and duly converted his own try. The lead did not last long as within 5 minutes the home team had replied with a converted try to level the scores.

The remainder of the half consisted of good end to end rugby with both teams threatening to score, eventually the deadlock was broken when Shaun Gunn managed to score a try the conversion being missed leaving the half time score at 12-7 to the visitors.

Ross Sutherland commenced the second half with determination and managed to score a unconverted try to level the scores. As the game progressed once again it was Shaun Gunn who made the vital break to score duly converted by Sam Croy. This game was far from over with Ross putting the Orkney/Caithness defence under pressure for periods of time. Fitness in the final portion of a game is becoming a strong point of the side and this was once again important with Charlie Quinn and William Steven going over for two unconverted tries leaving the final score at 29-12. On the bus North Tom Gordon was presented with a Mars Bar as his reward for being voted Man of the Match

This was a ideal hard game of rugby to set the side up for the National Bowl Final at Murrayfield on Sunday against Dundee Eagles.