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| CAITHNESS 9 - LEITH 0 by Iain Grant |
| Wed 30th Mar 2005 |
After a turbulent season full of giddy highs and gut-wrenching lows, it all came good for the Greens on the final day of the season -- but only just.
The club's faithful and quite a few new converts were put through the mill before they could celebrate promotion into BT National League Division 3 on Saturday.
After they negotiated the stern challenge posed by Leith, they faced a stomach-churning half-hour wait to learn the outcome of rivals Forrester's clash with Orkney in Kirkwall.
The try-less win achieved by Caithness meant the Edinburgh side could pip them were they to win and bag four tries in the process.
The early bulletins were inauspicious, with Forrester 14-7 up at the break.
After no-side at Millbank, it was a relief to glean that there were no further developments over the firth.
News of an equalising try for Orkney with five minutes left was greeted with gusto but the nerves started to jangle again with a vengeance with word of a third try for Forrester.
That was however to end the scoring to allow Caithness to finish second by virtue of their better points differential.
A crowd of about 300 turned up to help spur the Greens on to their second step-up in three years.
They included quite a few who had never before been to a live match and it was just a shame they were to witness a Caithness performance more prosaic and reliable than entertaining and cavalier.
Their victory was built very much on a solid, uncompromising defence and a sound execution of the basics.
It lacked the attacking brio which has seen them run in 72 league and cup tries.
There were a couple of examples of the line breaks from Hamish Boyd and Duncan Sangster, which has helped them to individual hauls of 13 and eight respectively.
James 'Pop' Sinclair, nine tries to his name, also had a couple of scampering breaks down the wing.
But the attacks came to naught partly due to a lack of support and partly due to some admirable tackling and general defensive work put in by the visitors.
As with the 10-10 deadlock in Leith, the sides succeeded in cancelling each other out. Players were quickly denied space and both packs managed to slow up opposition ball at the breakdown.
A gung-ho start to the match had Leith firmly on then back foot with their hosts turning down a kickable penalty as they sensed an early try.
A more sanguine view prevailed when they won another penalty after eight minutes.
Hamish Boyd -- taking over place-kicking duties from the unavailable Michael Henderson -- duly spliced the posts.
Continued pressure saw the Edinburgh men stray offside at a ruck after 17 minutes to allow Boyd to double his side's advantage.
Leith conceded what possession they had with a succession of misfired punts, including a missed touch from a penalty.
Their hapless kicking display continued on 19 minutes when Stevie Hutchinson was off-target with a penalty shot.
Hamish Boyd's first upfield sortie came after Caithness did well to pirate the ball from a Leith maul.
He took play past the half-way line before feeding hooker Stevie Campbell whose inside pass from near the touchline went to ground.
After 27 minutes, Sangster sped clear with Evan Sutherland the link before George Sutherland took play deep into opposition territory with a kick-and-chase.
The game was marred by handling gremlins and unnecessary turnovers, which meant both sides struggled to put together more than three or four phases.
A surging run from Evan Sutherland created the final opportunity of the first half with James 'Pop' Sinclair being just squeezed out on a dash for the line.
Hutchinson looked Leith's most prominent threat from open play with the Irish full-back setting the alarm bells ringing with several yard-guzzling runs.
Danny Budge featured regularly with some fine battering-ram take-ups and the prop was to the fore as Caithness buzzed the Leith line in the opening minutes of the second half.
The pressure was unrelenting and finally yielded a penalty bang in front of the posts.
Boyd exacted the three points to put Caithness more than converted score up.
It had been a relatively easy game for ref Kenny Pottinger but he was then forced to flourish two yellow cards in as many minutes.
The first went to Ewen Boyd for a stamp.
Hutchinson then blotted his copy-book when he hacked down George Sutherland as the flanker followed up his own kick.
The offence took place on the Leith 10 metre line with no-one in front of Sutherland.
The ref was surely correct to sin-bin Hutchinson but not award a penalty try as it was by no means probable that Caithness would have got the touchdown.
Leith then enjoyed a longish spell of possession and field position though they were unable to make serious inroads against a resolute defence.
Five minutes from time, a break-out ended with James 'Pop' Sinclair chipping into the corner and Hutchinson doing well to make up ground and pounce on the loose ball.
Any hopes of breaking the try famine were ended when a Caithness player offended at the subsequent ruck to allow Leith to clear their lines.
Caithness coach Colin Sangster was kept posted of the dramatic developments by phone at the training camp of Scotland under-18s in north-east France.
After his return, Sangster said: "I was a bit concerned when I heard the half-time score of the game in Orkney but everything eventually went our way.
"I think we probably deserved to go up at the end of the day even if we did slightly stagger over the finishing line."
The coach, who watched the Millbank game on video, was frustrated the Greens had not been able to convert spells of intense pressure into tries.
"We seemed to struggle to get enough go-forward to get in behind them and our all-round support play was poor.
"We had three clear-cut scoring opportunities early on and if we had finished off a couple, it could have been a different outcome."
Sangster is already planning ahead for next season and warns the club cannot afford to stand still.
He said: "The club needs to look at how it's going to cope at operating at a higher level.
"There needs to be a step-up on both the playing side and the back-up."
Caithness: R. Mackay, J. Mill (James 'Pigeon' Sinclair 58), H. Boyd, W. Mill, James 'Pop' Sinclair, D. Sangster, G. Fryer, J. MacMillan, S. Campbell, D. Budge (S. Dunnett 61), E. Boyd, A. Morris (cpt), L. MacNicol, G. Sutherland, E. Sutherland. Sub (unused) -- D. Buchanan.
Ref -- Mr K. Pottinger.
Orkney were dealt a get-out-of-jail card after they feared Saturday's 21-14 defeat by Forrester had condemned them to relegation to Caledonian A.
Their reprieve came after learning that rivals Aberdeenshire had gone down 20-0 at Strathendrick.
That means 'Shire have to pull off an unlikely Houdini act away to champions Falkirk tomorrow.
Only a high-scoring victory for the north-east men would prevent them going down.
Otherwise, Orkney would finish fourth bottom and face a play-off to retain their status.
Already-relegated pair Strathendrick and Earlston meet tomorrow in the league's other outstanding tie.
Lenzie's completed a strong finish to their campaign on Saturday with a 25-22 win at Cumnock.
Caithness Seconds are due to play an Orkney Internal League fixture in Kirkwall tomorrow.
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