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| COACH HEARTENED BY LATE SHOW OF RESISTANCE by Iain Grant |
| Fri 23rd Oct 2009 |
Lasswade 46 Caithness 12.
The Greens’ playing resources were fully stretched for Saturday’s tussle with the upwardly-mobile Midlothian outfit.
The visitors were mightily impressed with the ground at Hawthornden, which boasts two international-class pitches, a 350-seater stand and state-of-the-art ancillary facilities.
Last year’s Scottish Hydro National Division 3 champions have attracted several overseas players and others with Premiership 1 experience. Even with a clutch of regulars sidelined through injury, they were able to field a more-than-usual squad on Saturday.
No such luxury was afforded Caithness coach Colin Sangster. With three first picks on the medium-term casualty list and several others offshore, Kris Hamilton and James Paterson called off through illness and university commitments respectively.
Even the returns of Stevie Campbell and Roddy Gray were compromised by their requirement to play outwith their favoured positions.
The personnel crisis led to Dougie Gunn and Scott Foubister making their seasonal NLD2 debuts as starting wingers.
Given the return of the personnel problems which dogged last season, the Greens competed manfully in the first half which they trailed by 13-7. Both tries they conceded to lock forward Sean Montgomery and ex-Watsonians centre Gavin Brown stemmed from driven mauls.
In between, the Greens scored a cracking touchdown.
A series of forward-led charges took play to the opposition 22 from where Campbell was put in space to commit full-back Carl McWilliam before delivering the scoring pass to number eight Evan Sutherland. Gary MacKay landed the extras.
Brown failed with both conversions but landed a penalty to put his side six points ahead at the interval.
Caithness got off the worst possible start after the turnaround when Gunn and Campbell got in a ravel dealing with a kick into their own 22. The ball ended up on the deck for former Canterbury Metro fly-half Andy Reid to swoop and cross unopposed.
Three tries in the space of five minutes then turned the game irrevocably the way of the home side who went on to grab another with 15 minutes left.
Inside centre Bernie Hennessey, who counts the Natal Sharks among his former clubs, scored two with the others falling to Reid and right winger Niall Gray.
Brown goaled four to end with a personal haul of 16 points.
The large home support were licking their lips in anticipation of a late run of points but they did not materialise. That was due to some heroic defence from the visitors who also contrived to put together several threatening attacks.
From one, a multi-phase sequence ended with a line-out which was worked along the back division to allow Gunn to squeeze in near the left touch-flag fopr the final score of the day. Coach Sangster drew heart from the late resistance.
He said: “I was worried when we seemed to tire early in the second half - but, to be fair to the guys, they never caved in. They battled back and were determined they should not score 50 points against us.
“They were nothing special as long as you kept the pressure on them. As soon as they got the time and space to play, they looked pretty good.”
The two tries for the Greens were the first Lasswade had conceded at home this season.
Sangster said: “I thought we showed more application and grit in that game than in our previous three losses which were all by less than a score. A bit of that in the previous games could have turned these losses into wins.”
Tomorrow, Caithness will do well to be wary of the challenge posed by visitors Cambuslang. After a string of heavy defeats, their 31-0 victory over Stewartry on Saturday gave them a second win in three outinds and lifted them off the bottom of the league.
Danny Gordon, Grant Anderson and Andy Sangster are all out for the foreseeable future while Campbell and Gray are unavailable tomorrow. Hamilton should be fit to resume at scrum-half while last year’s skipper Ewen Boyd should also return to the squad.
Coach Sangster is not under-estimating the visitors but has set out a target of garnering three victories from the club’s next four fixtures to get back in the top four. Tomorrow’s match has a 3 p.m. kick-off.
Lasswade – C. McWilliams, N. Gray, G. Brown, B. Hennessey, A. Elliot, A. Reid, J. Elliot, R. Noble, G. Cook, D. Robertson, S. Montgomery, D. Grant, C. Quigley, D. Hearn, B. Smith. Replacements (all used) – P. Robinson, S. Carruthers and J. Carmichael.
Caithness – G. Mackay, D. Gunn, J. Sinclair, S. Campbell, S. Foubister, B. McIntosh, W. Mill, J. Foubister, H. Coghill, T. Sutherland, J. Miller, R. Gray, A. Morris (cpt), E. Sutherland, D. Pottinger. Replacements (all used) – B. More, S. Dunnett and C. Smith.
* With just over a third of the season gone, Greenock Wanderers and Lasswade fill the top two promotion spots.
Wanderers had no problems keeping their unbeaten record intact on Saturday, inflicting a 85-3 thrashing on visitors Preston Lodge.
The result of the day was at Kilmarnock where Highland survived late pressure to hold out for a 17-15 win, which lifted them above their hosts into third.
Cambuslang climbed off the bottom rung with an emphatic 31-0 home win over Newton Stewart. They are replaced by Stewartry who went down 36-15 at home to Glasgoiw Acces.
Hawick YM’s miserable away form continued with a 23-13 defeat to Waysiders / Drumpellier.
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2 |
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7 |
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| 1st XV Season (2010/11) |
| Caithness 25 - 27 Kilmarnock |
| 4th Sep 10 - KO: 15:00 |
| Venue: Millbank |
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| 1st XV Season (2010/11) |
| Stewartry vs Caithness |
| 11th Sep 10 - KO: 15:00 |
| Venue: Greenlaw |
| :: More Fixtures |
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