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| STRATHENDRICK 23 - CAITHNESS 19 by Iain Grant |
| Wed 16th Mar 2005 |
The Greens went through the full gamut of emotions after the dust settled on their narrow reverse at Fintry on Saturday.
Their intensely frustrating defeat to a side scrapping to stay in BT National League Division 4 seemed to have dealt a terminal blow to their promotion bid.
But the mood of despair was lifted when news arrived that rivals Forrester had gone down 29-15 at Lenzie.
The upshot was a one point gain for Caithness by virtue of the bonus they picked up for the narrow margin of their defeat.
With the teams having identical match and bonus point records with one game each to play, the Greens go above the Edinburgh outfit because of their superior points differential.
The final fixtures on March 26 see Caithness hosting Leith and Forrester travel to Orkney.
Reflecting on the latest twist in his side's roller-coaster season, a mightily relieved Greens coach Colin Sangster said: "It's back in our hands.
"It's very frustrating to look back at the season and see the number of points we have thrown away.
"But we're now focused on Leith and if we don't win the game and collect a bonus point, we don't deserve to be in Division 3 next year."
Sangster was again on Scottish under-18 duty on Saturday and unable to be with his club.
The scenic venue, to the north of the Campsie Fells, provided an excellent playing surface for the Greens' first foray there.
They came up against fired-up opponents requiring a win to have any hope of avoiding their second successive demotion.
Cathness early on fell foul of a referee who was to make a series of eccentric decisions and interpretation of the rules.
'Endrick took the lead after a series of attacks led to the visitors being penalised twice.
Their failure to retreat the requisite 10 metres from the second led to the ref going behind the posts to signal a penalty try.
It was converted, with a drop goal increasing the lead to 10-0.
After 25 minutes, a glorious long-range move ended with flanker William Mill going over to score near the posts.
An opponent appeared to gratuitously knee Mill on the small of the back after he had grounded the ball but no action was taken.
Michael Henderson landed the goal.
'Endrick then pulled further away with a penalty and converted try 13 minutes from the break.
The Greens kept in touch when they grabbed a second try five minutes from the interval.
Prop Sinclair Dunnett got on the end of another sweeping move to cross, with Henderson landing the extras.
Behind 20-14, the Greens enjoyed the benefit of a tail-wind after the turnaround.
'Endrick drew further ahead with a penalty on the hour-mark.
A strong finish saw flanker George Sutherland go over for an unconverted try with 10 minutes left.
It was to end the scoring but the try was later to prove its weight in gold in allowing the Greens to steal a march on Forrester.
Sangster said: "From what I've heard about the game, we didn't play particularly badly.
"Maybe we didn't show enough urgency at certain times.
"The ref seems to have made life very difficult for them but it was up to us to retain our discipline.
"They should have backed right off but they didn't do so and that just made things worse."
Without a fixture tomorrow, the Greens have a full-scale training session as part of the build-up to next week's match versus Leith.
The coach said: "We had a real heart-to-heart with the players at training on Tuesday.
"They know what I expect from them and it is up to them to produce the goods next week."
Sangster will miss the showdown at Millbank.
He left yesterday for Lille where Scotland under-18s are involved in an eight-team tourney.
The other league game on Saturday saw Aberdeenshire's relegation woes deepen when they lost out 22-5 at home to Cumnock.
The only game in the division tomorrow sees Strathendrick travel to Orkney in a game both sides need to win in their battle to beat the drop.
Caithness v Strathendrick: R. Mackay, J. Mill, H. Boyd, D. Sangster, B. Morris (J. Sinclair 60), M. Henderson, G. Fryer, J. MacMillan, S. Campbell, S. Dunnett, E. Boyd, A. Morris (cpt), W. Mill (L. MacNicol h/t), G. Sutherland, E. Sutherland.
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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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