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| CAITHNESS 27 - NEWTON STEWART 10 by Iain Grant |
| Fri 5th Sep 2008 |
The Greens on Saturday continued their happy knack of chalking up opening day National League victories.
For the fourth successive season, they have got off to a flier by winning in front of their own support.
The latest success, garnered on the back of a storming second half comeback, is particularly welcome given the negative signs sent out by a low-key pre-season.
Newton Stewart, in contrast, arrived with a near full-strength squad, having had good numbers at training and a clutch of warm-up games.
A converted try in the death throes of the first half gave the visitors a 10-3 lead and hopes of having a win under their belts to lighten the mood for their marathon return trip.
But the advantage failed to sustain them as they turned round to face a strengthening wind blowing towards the tennis court end.
The Greens quickly cancelled out the deficit with the first of three tries and ended up worthy winners.
They lined up with just six of the side who started the corresponding Scottish Hydro Electric National League Division 2 in March.
Of the units, only the half-back combination of Gary Mackay and Kris Hamilton survived from the side which secured a 32-10 victory.
Orkney ref Ian Rushbrook was a late replacement for Saturday’s game which was both sides’ first competitive fixture to incorporate the experimental rule changes.
Temperatures into the balmy 70 degrees Centigrade were welcome but the glare of a high sun caused problems as early as the first minute when home full-back Kris Gove lost the flight of a spiralling punt and knocked on.
Newton Stewart impressed early on with some tight, driving play by their forwards, which won them good yardage.
When the ball was finally released, a neat switch between stand-off Neil Armstrong and centre Graham MacMillan allowed the latter to make serious inroads.
He was finally downed 10 metres from the line with a Green penalised for going off his feet at the resultant breakdown.
The infringement was just off the line off the posts and should have made the kick a formality but Armstrong failed to account for the wind factor as his attempt spiralled wide.
The Greens took full advantage of the seventh minute let-off when Blair McIntosh kicked his side into the lead within a minute.
The penalty was awarded after the visiting back division was caught offside in the aftermath to a powerful Hamilton break from the base of a retreating scrum.
There was little to choose between the sides with Newton Stewart persisting with a structured, multi-phase approach and the Greens happy to absorb the pressure and threaten mainly through long-range individual counters.
Neil Armstrong levelled the scores on 20 minutes when he found the target with his second pot at goal.
Caithness were well ahead on line breaks with McIntosh and fellow centre Danny Gordon both making incisive thrusts.
Mackay also worked his way free down the right touchline and had the line in sight before he was levelled by an all-enveloping, last-man tackle from full-back Graham Armstrong.
Visiting scrum-half John McWhirter provided one of the game’s highlights on 27 minutes with a quicksilver break from a scrum deep in his own 22.
He shimmied and sidestepped his way past a handful of opponents on a yard-guzzling run which took play up to near the Caithness 22.
Newton Stewart kept on the front foot for the remainder of the half when they seriously stretched the Greens’ defensive lines.
A galloping intrusion by Graham Armstrong looked set to breach the line two minutes from the break but he spilled the ball after a bone-crunching challenge from Greens stand-in skipper Stevie Campbell.
Home winger Gordie Macleod then did well to scramble back in-goal to get a hand to a Neil Armstrong chip ahead of several chasers.
Caithness looked to have held out but in the last action of the half in the fifth minute of injury time, they were cut open by a piercing break from Graham Armstrong.
Campbell got across top cover but could only watch as the full-back slipped an inside pass to allow left winger Alistair Gibson to cross unimpeded. Neil Armstrong’s conversion stretched the lead to 10-3.
A purposeful start to the resumption saw the Greens quickly wipe out the advantage within a couple of minutes.
After getting good field position, a well-worked move instigated by Kris Gove and Campbell ended with Evan Sutherland’s reverse pass putting Kris Hamilton under the posts. Blair McIntosh added the extras.
Though handicapped by a misfiring line-out, Caithness kept the initiative and continued to pose a threat in their broken-play running.
One highly promising break from Grant Anderson came to naught for want of support.
McIntosh narrowly missed out with two penalties for ruck offences but was on target with a third midway through the half awarded for a crunching late tackle on Mackay.
Newton Stewart had their moments, notably when a dangerous foray from left winger Alistair Gibson was snuffed out by Campbell’s all-enveloping tackle.
Caithness scored again with 15 minutes left when Campbell’s initial break was supported by Sutherland who put Hamilton over at the tennis court end. McIntosh’s conversion made it 20-10.
There followed a ragged period, blighted by an inconclusive bout of ping pong kicking.
Caithness finished strongly and should have added to the lead five minutes from time following a slick piece of play involving McIntosh, Gove and Macleod.
The overlap was spurned but the Greens did strike again when Campbell made the space for Gove to cross for a try, which McIntosh converted.
A delighted Greens coach Jim MacMillan was delighted how his troops had performed.
He said: “The wind was quite an advantage and it would have been nice to have gone it at the interval at 3-3.
“They scored right at the end after we stopped concentrating and keeping our defence pushing up.
“I thought we went on to play really well in the second half and score three well-worked tries.
“It was a pity the last one did not come a bit earlier as we could then have had a real crack at getting the win bonus.”
MacMillan added: “There was a lot of good individual performances but there’s still plenty of things we have to work on.”
The return of skipper Ewen Boyd for tomorrow’s visit to Kilmarnock should help resolve the line-out gremlins.
Vice-captain Graham Fryer is also available to improve the options behind the scrum.
On the debit side, Campbell misses out through a work placement in England and fellow back row man Mike Flavell cannot make the trip to Ayrshire.
There are also problems at hooker with Halde Pottinger facing a spell out with a shoulder joint problem and Sinclair Dunnett unavailable. McIntosh is also an injury doubt.
On Saturday, Kilmarnock went down 18-8 at the home of last year’s NLD3 champions Whitecraigs.
Stewartry were the biggest winners of the day, their 50-5 triumph over Hillfoots giving the newly demoted side a stormy baptism in NLD2.
Glasgow Accies, who have reportedly strengthened since last term, opened with a 24-3 home win over Highland.
The other promoted side, Hawick YM scored an impressive 15-6 victory over Forrester while Linlithgow edged out Greenock Wanderers 26-19.
Caithness – K. Gove, J. Sinclair, B. McIntosh, D. Gordon, G. Macleod, G. Mackay, K. Hamilton, J. Foubister, H. Pottinger, D. Buchanan, C. MacLeod, G. Anderson, M. Flavell, E. Sutherland, S. Campbell (cpt). Replacements (all used – S. Dunnett, H. Coghill and K. Foubister).
Newton Stewart – G. Armstrong, C. Murray, G. MacMillan, J. Wallace, A. Gibson, N. Armstrong, J. McWhirter, N. Stewart (cpt), S. Kingston, G. MacDonald, K. Faulds, R. Vance, M. Wallace, E. Dewar, D. Skimming. Replacements (all used) – S. Vance, D. Kirkwood and I. Russell).
Ref – Mr I. Rushbrook, Orkney.
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| Stewartry |
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| Berwick |
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5 |
| Newton Stewart |
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5 |
| Caithness |
1 |
5 |
| Waysiders Drumpellier |
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4 |
| Highland |
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| Aberdeenshire |
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| Kilmarnock |
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| 1st XV Season (2009/10) |
| Kilmarnock 81 - 5 Caithness |
| 17th Apr 10 - KO: 12:00 |
| Venue: Bellsland |
| :: Match Report |
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| 1st XV Season (2010/11) |
| Caithness vs Kilmarnock |
| 4th Sep 10 - KO: 15:00 |
| Venue: Millbank |
| :: More Fixtures |
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