Krakens run riot at Millbank in club record victory
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Caithness Krakens ran riot against newcomers Moray on Saturday, posting a club record 78-17 victory in their Caley North Women's League 2 tussle at Millbank.
The game started at 14-a-side as the Elgin team travelled one light but ended 11-a-side after three of their players were forced off with injuries.
The visitors have the makings of a decent outfit once their large contingent of rookies get some experience. But their fragile defence was cruelly exposed by the home team's strike runners and power plays.
Number eight Emmy Smith's haul of five tries and several assists made her a shoo-in for the player-of-the-match accolade. But there were several other impressive displays, including from prop Shona Malcolm who was prominent with some surging carries and deft offloads as well as bagging five conversions.
Moray fell behind with less than two minutes gone when a powerful break from Justine Mackay set the platform for the ball to be worked left to right to set Smith on her way to her first touchdown.
Soon after, fly-half Ellie Anderson sent right wing Ashley McLean on a free run to the line.
Smith's second and a solo effort from Anderson kept the scoreboard ticking along before Malcolm got on the end of a move to make it 33-0.
Skipper Nicola Mackay was then denied when she was held up in-goal after a long-range counter.
The reprieve was to prove short-lived as tries from McLean and Smith turned the screw before Moray made their first visit to the opposition 22 pay off when their impressive stand-off Lizzie Nuttall squeezed over.
The Krakens had the final say of the half when several offloads out of the tackle created the space for centre Lauren Gunn to cross.
The Krakens kept their foot to the floor with Gunn's second and Smith's fourth maintaining their point-per-minute return by the hour mark.
Unbowed, Moray responded with a fine individual effort from Nuttall reducing the leeway to 62-10.
Normal service was restored with tries for Justine Mackay and Smith, her fifth of the day.
The exhausted but resilient visitors celebrated rounding off the scoring with Nuttall darting over for her hat-trick try, converted by Rachel Blake.
Referee Paul Stewart blew time 13 minutes early after the last Moray casualty needed lengthy treatment.
The place-kicking duties for the Krakens were shared between Malcolm and Megan Douglas, who landed four conversions.
With regular coach Mike Flavell away, Gary Mackay was in charge on Saturday.
He said: "It was a decent performance and it was good to see some of the stuff we had been working on in training come off.
"There were some really good hands in some of the moves that led to tries."
Mackay said the squad needed to work hard on improving its defensive lines and tackling technique.
"Overall, given it was our first game of the season, I was delighted with how they did," he said.
With Mackay unavailable on Saturday, men's forward coach David Pottinger is to travel with the Krakens for their away match against Highland.
There were no injuries reported against Moray. But, having lost a number of regulars from last season, numbers are down and getting a full 15, never mind a squad, to travel to Inverness would be good news.
