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| TURBO-CHARGED GREENS SET THE PACE by Iain Grant |
| Fri 16th Apr 2010 |
The Greens returned to winning ways on Saturday with a victory which lifts them two places into fifth in the Scottish Hydro Electric National League Division Two.
All but one of their seven tries were scored in a devastating first half when they cut loose at every opportunity against their visitors from Castle Douglas.
Short-handed Stewartry looked on course to finish their campaign at the end of a serious mauling. But they staged a defiant fightback with their pack bossing the second half and allowing them to sign off with the final two tries of the game.
Caithness set the tone for what was to be a turbo-charged opening with two tries in the opening ten minutes.
A blindside move from a scrum created the first with Evan Sutherland’s carry ending with him committing full-back John Fingland before feeding Kris Hamilton on an unopposed run to the line. The second try followed a series of sparky phases which opened the way for Greens’ full-back Gary Mackay to exploit a broken-line defence to cross without a hand being laid on him.
Centre John Muir narrowed the gap with a 15th minute penalty but his side conceded again straight from the restart. A clever kick from Liam Brims created the initial opening and lock John Miller was on hand to bulldoze over to make it 15-3.
The home display was not faultless with continuing problems in the setpiece disrupting their game plan. This was exemplified in 28 minutes after Stewartry’s stand-off Cammy Fenwick was sacked behind his won line after his pack had crumpled on their put-in at a scrum five.
The Greens proceeded to butcher the glorious attacking opportunity by losing one of several strikes against the head.
They re-asserted their earlier dominance with their bonus-point score seven minutes from the break. James Sinclair cut a clever angle in midfield before Sutherland handed for Mackay to outflank several opponents to score his second of the day.
There was time for two more touchdowns before the interval. Sutherland brushed aside one tackler before taking two others with him as he powered over the line. A neat flip out of the tackle by Blair McIntosh then allowed Hamilton to notch his second. Brims added two conversions to put Caithness 34-3 ahead at the turnaround.
Stewartry, for whom coach Tam McGaw was a stand-in winger, had just 15 players and were in serious danger of being buried without trace. They showed commendable spirit in the face of adversity to wrest control of the forward battle.
Caithness did go further ahead on 57 minutes when a Sinclair offload created Sutherland’s 22nd of the season, which was goaled by Brims. That came after the Caithness defence had been seriously tested during a spell when flanker Andrew Chadwick was held up over the line.
Muir was one of the outstanding runners of the day and it was his clean break that put right winger Michael Yates over for their first try on 66 minutes. A couple of minutes later, Fenwick was almost over before a couple of close-in rumbles ended with a try for number eight Paul SwalwelL Muir added the conversion to end the scoring.
The final score was Caithness 41 Stewartry 17.
The first win in seven outings for Caithness was very welcome even if their second half fade-out took a fair bit of the gloss of the victory.
Greens coach Colin Sangster said: “It was a bit like a snap-shot of our season. There was a lot of promise shown in the first half without us being ruthless enough to finish the job. They were there to be taken apart but we were pretty naïve in some of the things we did in the first half though we did score two or three very good tries.”
The coach was disappointed the effort fizzled out after the break when he said his pack allowed Stewartry to bully them. “Our front five just completely disappeared and our setpiece just fell apart,” he said.
Caithness tonight set off for tomorrow’s final match of the season in Kilmarnock, knowing a win would secure fifth place.
Backs David McCarthy and Graham Fry are available again, as is number eight Andrew Sangster, in what should be one of their strongest travelling squads.
Caithness – G. Mackay, M. Oswald; B. McIntosh, J. Sinclair, G. Macleod, L. Brims, K. Hamilton, S. Dunnett, B. More, T. Sutherland, A. Morris (cpt), J. Miller, S. McIntosh, E. Sutherland, C. Simpson.
Replacements (all used) – M. Nicolson, R. Gray and P. Nicolson.
Stewartry – J. Fingland, M. Yates, J. Muir, M. Smith, T. McGaw, C. Fenwick, D. Boyd, S. Duffy, S. McCulloch, T. Cannon, M. Smith, C. Paterson, L. Hennesey, P. Shalwell, A. Chadwick.
Ref – Mr F. Anderson, Elgin.
* Highland slumped to one of their heaviest ever defeats on Saturday, shipping 70 points without reply at promotion-chasing Lasswade.
Glasgow Accies kept their challenge alive with a 44-24 triumph at Kilmarnock while Greenock Wanderers rounded off their flag-winning season with a narrow 20-13 win at the home of Waysiders Drumpellier.
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| Hawick YM |
2 |
10 |
| Kilmarnock |
2 |
9 |
| Waysiders Drumpellier |
2 |
9 |
| Glasgow Accies |
2 |
7 |
| Berwick |
2 |
6 |
| Annan |
2 |
5 |
| Highland |
2 |
5 |
| Aberdeenshire |
2 |
4 |
| Stewartry |
2 |
4 |
| Caithness |
2 |
3 |
| Newton Stewart |
2 |
1 |
| Alan Glens |
2 |
0 |
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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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