BIG WIN IN ORKNEY FOR ELLON U18 FIRST GAME OF THE SEASON!

The trip started on Friday and both U16 and U18 were travelling up together. The boys all got the day off school or work and made the long coach journey from Ellon to Scrabster to make the evening ferry to Stromness. A quick coach ride to Kirkwall hostel and then the lads tucked into a pasta Bolognese dinner made by the coaches.
The next day after a hearty breakfast, we made our way to Kirkwall Pickquay centre and the rugby ground. Kick off was 11:00 due to Orkney first team having an early kick of too and we had to vacate the pitch.
After a warm up and preparation time the boys were all up for a great game!
After a key win of the toss we swapped sides and played with the wind and made Orkney change ends. From the first kick of the game the team played with passion and determination. Every player was so stoked to be playing and seemed to feel invincible! First incident came when Stewart Cruickshanks was late tackled and “dumped” by an Orkney flanker. The referee missed it and I got a telling off from the referee for “pointing it out to him”. That shut me up for the game!
Strong forward play and swift passing to the wingers led to an early try by Liam Cousins and a conversion by Ben Shirron. It didn’t take long for Liam to be on the score sheet again with fast hands in the backs and a very strong presence to drive over.
Douglas Sharp made it three tries with strong back row play, and Ben made his second conversion. This was swiftly followed by Matthew Emmison making it a forth try as the Ellon back row really dominated all break downs and with great offloads kept the ball alive.
The end of the half was approaching and Ben took a strong scrum half dive for the line to make it try number five! This was converted by full back Nathan Emery.
Orkney spoiled an almost perfect first half by sneaking an unconverted try in the last seconds as Ellon let their concentration slip.
Ellon should have had more tries by feeding the wingers rather than taking it on with the forwards.
5 -31 at half time!
Second half was a slightly different story. The wind had picked up and a spot of rain in the air, both into Ellon faces. Orkney picked up an early try; possibly as Ellon sat back thinking they already had won. This led to a strong Orkney revival as they got one over the props in the scrum and started doing well in the ruck. Ellon were going in too high in the rucks and started getting driven back leading to a couple of turn overs which led to two tries, one converted. After a strong talk behind the goal lines, Ellon mustered together and began to dominate again. We had key player Matthew Emmison having a well-deserved rest on the bench for 5 mins, and a couple of players subbed due to injuries, and still Ellon played hard and fought back up the field into the weather.
Our dedication to fitness work paid off as Ellon finished very strong with all payers running to the last second, while Orkney started to fade. This led to a penalty given away by Orkney under the posts, which Stewart kicked to give a final score of 22 – 34 and a great win for Ellon!
This game was won by players 100% determination and commitment, summed up by man of the match Matthew Emmison who seemed to cover every blade of grass on the pitch and hit every ruck with all his energy. Liam Cousins came a close second with two outstanding tries; he could have had more if he had been fed more ball. His defence was outstanding also. All 18 boys that travelled should be congratulated for a good strong win against hard opposition, but there is still plenty to work on over the season!
After a good feed by Orkney, we headed back to Stromness for the ferry and along trip back to Ellon, with some very happy, tired U18s!
Next game is Moray at the Meadows, Ellon on Saturday 8th September, 13:00KO. Come down and support the lads.

Gareth Kemp
U18 Coach and Junior Head Coach