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| CAITHNESS 17 - LISMORE 9 by Iain Grant |
| Wed 2nd Nov 2005 |
 The Greens extended their winning habit on Saturday while continuing to exhibit a worrying recent tendency of failing to spark until the second half.
They overhauled a 6-0 interval deficit to achieve a hard-earned win against a committed and well-organised Edinburgh outfit. The success leaves them second in National League Division 3, 10 points ahead of Lismore and Highland, who share third spot.
A crowd of over 200 braved an afternoon at Millbank where conditions steadily deteriorated, with a freshening crossfield wind charged with heavy showers in the latter stages.
The contest was still very much live when Lismore skipper Douglas Thyne's landed his third penalty to reduce the Greens' lead to 10-9 with 10 minutes left.
The biggest cheers of the day came two minutes later when Russell Mill finished off a well-worked move and Michael Henderson landed the extra points to give the home side much-needed breathing space.
It was a particularly sweet score for Mill who turned out for Lismore until last season during a spell working in the capital.
Further spice was added to Saturday's match by the inclusion of Caithness exile Davy McIvor in the visitors' pack.
The Greens saw plenty of the ball in the opening minutes though it was soon evident they would not easily pierce a well-marshalled and combative defence.
Michael Henderson was short with a speculative, long-range, first minute drop-kick attempt before his side went behind.
Lismore full-back Danny Howitz's well-timed intrusion took play up to the opposition 22 where a home forward was penalised for entering a ruck from the side.
Thyne duly converted the penalty into three points.
Caithness had a chance to respond in kind but Henderson hooked his first place-kick attempt.
Henderson was prominent after 15 minutes when he combined with scrum-half Graham Fryer to charge down a clearance kick, with the city side fortunate the deflection went their way.
The Greens pack failed to impress as a unit, achieving little in the way of continuity or genuine go-forward momentum in loose play.
Their scrummage also showed signs of the odd creak though the line-out -- as has been the case form the start of the season -- was faultless apart from a couple of stray throws to the tail.
The flow of the game was not helped by ref Paul Smith's over-fussy policing of the breakdown.
Thyne was off-target with a penalty shortly before Caithness went desperately close to grabbing the first try of the day after 33 minutes.
A series of quick exchanges saw lock Danny Budge's midfield charge take him to the shadow of the posts.
He handed on to skipper Andy Morris who was hauled down just short by a retreating defender.
Three minutes later, Lismore created what was to be just about their only real try-scoring opportunity of the afternoon.
From a less-than-promising situation from deep in his own half, scrum-half Richard Taylor suddenly broke clear down the right
There was an alarming lack of cover and Taylor may have gone all the way had he not been scragged by Morris on the far touch-line just inside the Caithness half.
The visitors got a boost for their half-time talk when Thyne knocked over his second penalty.
Greens coach Colin Sangster did not hide his frustration about his side's first half display and made clear at the break the shortcomings he wanted addressed.
His demand was met in the third quarter when Lismore's earlier bump and grunt noticeably waned as the home side upped the intensity of their game.
Fryer was proving a real handful, harassing and hounding Taylor at scrums when not making sniping breaks round the fringes or sparking off his three-quarters.
A good spell of possession by the Greens saw Budge stopped a couple of feet from the line and then penalised for holding on.
It proved a temporary respite for Lismore who fell behind after 54 minutes.
A surging forward drive from a five metre line-out sucked in fringers to allow the ball to be shipped out from left to right at the tennis court end.
Centre Duncan Sangster mowed his way through the fatally fractured defence to touch down near enough the posts to allow Henderson to kick his side into the lead.
A minute later, Fryer was at the centre of another menacing raid which ended with Lismore killing the ball in a ruck and Henderson kicking the resultant penalty.
The Caithness cause was hit on the hour-mark when lock Ewen Boyd was dispatched to spend 10 minutes on the sidelines for a piece of careless footwork.
Lismore however did not profit from the man advantage and indeed were exhibiting all the signs of being a spent force.
The home side went for the kill with a flowing midfield move after 66 minutes ending with full-back Richard Mackay held up just short.
The Edinburgh side did reduce the gap to a single point when a desultory raid ended with Thyne landing his third penalty on 70 minutes.
But their hopes were finally extinguished four minutes later when the Greens grabbed their killer second try.
Henderson's long-floated pass to Steven Campbell saw the hooker draw the last defender to send Russell Mill racing in down the left flank.
Henderson's well-judged conversion put his side over a converted score ahead.
Caithness threatened to add to their lead but were denied by some gutsy, last-ditch defending.
Caithness -- R. Mackay, J. Sinclair, W. Mill, D. Sangster, R. Mill, M. Henderson, G. Fryer, J. MacMillan, S. Campbell, R. Gray, E. Boyd, D. Budge, D. Pottinger, A. Morris (cpt), E. Sutherland. Replacements -- D. Buchanan, L. MacNicol. Unused -- J. Begg.
Lismore -- D. Howitz, A. Kinninmouth, S. Fairlie-Clarke, G. Baker, A. Doak, D. Thyne (cpt), R. Taylor, J. Nicol, D. McIvor, J. Peacock, C. Gilmour, G. Murray, E. Murray, N. Stemp, J. Burke. Replacement (used) -- A. Johnstone.
Ref -- Mr P. Wood, Balmacara.
Lismore coach Mike Moore afterwards said: "I thought out defence today was outstanding. "Unfortunately, we too often put ourselves under pressure with some poor decision-making and basic errors.
"It was overall a pretty scrappy game though Caithness did step it up a bit in the second half.
"They also succeeded in stopping us playing it wide and bringing our back three more into the game." Moore said he is looking forward to the rematch at Inch Park in March.
Caithness have the more immediate pre-occupation with a very difficult second round BT Cup match away to Perthshire tomorrow.
The draw could not have been more unkind to the Greens at a stage when the competition still excludes the big guns from the Premiership.
Perthshire last Saturday went top of NLD 1 after displacing Ardrossan Accies with a 20-11 away win over the Ayrshire outfit.
Caithness coach Colin Sangster says his side will have to be fired up from the first whistle -- unlike their sluggish start to Saturday's match.
"The whole thing was very low-key in the first half," he said.
"The game, the crowd, the whole atmosphere was pretty flat and the ref didn't help with the stream of penalties he awarded."
He said poor execution and decision-making by the Greens added to their woes before they stepped up a level.
"There was a bit more passion after the break and once we scored the first try, I never thought we were going to lose and I thought we could have gone on to win a bonus point."
The win gives Caithness a healthy lead over the two third placed sides but the coach says a lot of hard work remains to be done.
He said: "We're now two bonus wins above both Lismore and Highland but we've got some tough away games coming up so it's nice to have that kind of cushion."
Looking to tomorrow's cup encounter, Sangster rates Perthshire as a side on the up who play an attractive brand of rugby.
He said: "They are a decent, all-round side who are sitting top of National Division 1.
"It is going to be a very tough test for us but we'll be giving it a good go."
Prop John Foubister is set to return to the squad though Russell Mill is one of several injury doubts for the trip.
League leaders Falkirk continued their recent impressive run with a 48-10 win in Inverness over Highland.
Trinity Accies, the only league team the Greens have still to face, continued their recent good form by inflicting a first home defeat for Helensburgh.
The 16-12 win, combined with other results, puts the Edinburgh side very much in touch with the promotion race.
Bottom side Glenrothes meanwhile showed they will not go down without a fight after chalking up their first victory -- 23-12 win over Whitecraigs.
In the other match in the division, Hawick YM won 15-5 at home to Newton Stewart.
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