News
Orkney RFC win incident-packed rugby match
Robert Leslie 31/01/2009 19:47:00
AN eventful rugby match at Pickaquoy on Saturday afternoon saw Orkney
RFC come from behind to win 26-12 against Mackie Academy FP RFC, who
had two players taken to hospital by ambulance in the second half.
Orkney's man of the match John Dearness crossed the line five times
during the match, but had two tries chalked off. However, the home side
still secured the bonus point for scoring four tries, with a tremendous
try by Adam Towrie, which opened Orkney's account, complementing the
Dearness hat-trick.
The first 40 minutes of the match had been fairly even, with the only
points coming for Mackie - an Andrew Pollock try midway through the
half, which went unconverted.
It was only a couple of minutes into the second half before Adam Towrie
went over at full stretch in the left corner for Orkney, for an
unconverted try, levelling the match.
John Dearness's two non-counting tries came next, the first judged to
have been held up, and the next ruled out as the referee ruled that
Orkney scrum-half Erik Laughton had made an illegal dummy move from the
base of a scrum inside the Mackie 22 before No8 Edward Russell picked
up and passed to Dearness to run over.
There was no arguing with the next score though, as John Dearness went
over in the 18th minute for the first of his hat-trick, Erik Laughton
converting for a 12-5 lead to Orkney.
It was a dropped Mackie ball on half way that gave Dearness his next
score, as he dribbled the ball the length of the half and controlled it
perfectly before diving on it at the crucial moment. The conversion
from Laughton stretched the lead to 19-5, but it was only a couple of
minutes later that Mackie winger Stuart Lawson dashed up the right to
score, Michael Levack on target with the conversion to take the
visitors to within a converted try of Orkney.
The first injury stoppage of the match came on the hour mark, with
Mackie front row man Ross Clyne going down with an injured right knee,
which turned out to be ligament damage.
With an ambulance arriving to take the injured player to the Balfour
Hospital for treatment, it was a full 20 minutes of standing around in
the cold for the players before the game got under way again. When it
did, Orkney were quickest to get back up to speed, John Dearness making
a great interception as Mackie tried to run the ball out of their half
up the right. Dearness ran unchallenged to score under the posts and
Erik Laughton converted again to round off the scoring at 26-12.
The drama was not over yet for the 100 or so spectators though, as only
five minutes after the restart another Mackie player went down. This
time second row Stuart Byers was concussed in an accidental collision
during an Orkney attack. He was quickly put in the recovery position
but was able to walk off the pitch with help five minutes later.
The ambulance returned to Pickaquoy to pick up the still groggy Byers
and take him to the Balfour just as the match came to an end. It is
understood that he is being kept in overnight for observation.
The result means Orkney climb to seventh in Caledonia Division 1, and
have now won six and lost six from their 12 matches so far.