ELLON GRIND OUT VICTORY AGAINST 13 MAN ORKNEY – 46-0

The visitors arrived with only thirteen players and under the competition rules they had to play against the full strength Ellon, although the scrums were restricted to only seven players on each side.
Orkney were fired up for the encounter against the side who had won the first match of the season in Kirkwall. For the first ten minutes it didn’t look as though Ellon had two more players on the pitch than Orkney. After six minutes Ellon thought they had the first score when winger Liam Cousins dived over in the corner but the try was ruled out for a forward pass. The scoreline remained deadlocked until the tenth minute when pressure from the forwards resulted in a try for Tom Curtis.
The lead was stretched five minutes later when Orkney indiscipline led to a penalty which was kicked into touch. From the line out Nathan Brown drove over to give the home side a ten point lead.
A scrum on the Orkney five metre line led to scrum-half Bern Shirron picking up from the base and darting over. The try was converted by Nathan Emery to give Ellon a 17-00 half-time lead.
Given their superior numbers Ellon had been very sloppy throughout the first half and the coaches were clearly unhappy with some poor passing and lack of communication.
The half-time team talk got an immediate reaction from the players with the backs running at pace and offloading to send Liam Cousins over in the corner.
Despite the scoreline Orkney had a decent amount of possession but their lack of numbers meant they were never able to break through the Ellon defence. Fifteen minutes into the second half the scoreline was 27-0 when substitute Tom Owen collected a ball from a five metre line-out to dive over.
The lead was extended to 34 points when pressure on the Orkney line and some good offloading enabled stand-off Stewart Cruickshank to score next to the posts. The try was converted by Ben Shirron.
The Ellon dominance continued with more good play from the backs creating space for any one of three players to score but it was replacement fullback Josh Walker who took the final pass to dive over.
The try of the match was scored with almost the final move of the game when a brilliant break from Mathew Emmison saw him surge through a number of tackles before offloading to captain Jamie Gillan who cut inside and scored under the posts. The try was easily converted and at the final whistle the scoreline read Ellon 46 – Orkney 0.
It wasn’t the best performance from Ellon but their winning run continues and they are now comfortably in second place in Caledonia League 1 North. However, they will need to improve a lot before the visit of leaders, Highland RFC in two weeks time.
Coach Gareth Kemp said after the match. “Many thanks for Orkney for still coming down when short of numbers”. “They played very disruptive rugby and created a lot of problems for us, so hats off to them”. “Next we have Moray away and we will need to improve our performance to maintain our position, and keep snapping at Highland’s heels”.