The U16s welcomed Orkney to Dundee on Saturday in the first round of the National Youth Cup. The sun was shining across Alloway Place, and both teams gave it their all in a fifteen try end to end thriller.

Just as last week though, the match couldn't have gotten off to a worse start with the visitors dotting down inside the first minute to give them early advantage. In much the same vein as last week, the visitors' lead was short lived as Lucas finished off a good team move to score in the corner to level the scores at 5-5.

Orkney had settled the quickest of the two sides and soon found themselves back in front before an excellent set piece move saw Kaiden go over to level the scores at 10-10, with the wind playing a big factor in conversion completion for both sides.

Dundee settled down after this and started to control the game a bit more, and two tries soon followed through Max, playing at Number 8 this week, and Euan, with the latter also being converted.

The visitors grabbed themselves a third try of the afternoon before the home forwards turned over a scrum in opposition territory and Matthew sniped to score and nudge the boys further in front, 29-15, at the break.

The boys started the second half well, and just a few minutes in, Aidan finished a good team move to stretch the lead to 19 points. The visitors were far from done though and two scores in five minutes, one of which was converted, reduced the deficit to seven points.

Archie A scored in the corner to once again extend the lead, before two more Orkney tries reduced the deficit to two points. It was Dundee that scored the all important next try though as Max went over for his second of the afternoon with just five minutes left to finish the scoring.

Full time: Dundee 44-37 Orkney

"A hell of a gutsy performance from the lads today to grind that one out against a very strong and physical opponent. The boys are absolutely delighted and quite rightly so, they were excellent across the board.

We had some challenges today with only being able to name a squad of fifteen, and some boys playing in unfamiliar positions, so to be able to put together that kind of performance is brilliant and I'm so proud of the boys.

As with every game we have played so far this season, some of our rugby was excellent and a real joy to watch. The lads are developing really well and you can see elements of what we do at training right across our performances which is really pleasing.

Orkney were excellent today and should be very proud of their own performance. They created some tough moments for us, but the lads stuck together, dug deep and worked so hard for each other for the full game, epitomised by the bravery from Max at the end, putting his body on the line against a big strong runner, and forcing a turnover which ultimately won us the game, a real Captain's tackle.

The challenges keep coming as we have Biggar up next in the league, and another opportunity for the boys to showcase how good they can be."