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| FALKIRK 50 - CAITHNESS 26 by Iain Grant |
| Sat 14th Oct 2006 |
The Greens were powerless to halt the Falkirk juggernaut on Saturday as they leaked 50 points for the first time in their four National League campaigns.
The game was effectively up after half-an-hour by when the slick Sunnyside outfit had forged a 31 point lead.
Fears of a rout thankfully proved premature as Caithness staged a backs-to-the-wall recovery to run in four tries, which prised an unlikely bonus point.
Falkirk look like a side on a mission, with three successive titles secured on a run which has seen them lose just two of their last 43 league clashes.
One of those reverses was in Thurso on the opening day of last season when the Greens won 30-5.
Caithness have done exceptionally well to keep step with their rivals in their progress to NLD2 but they ran into a new-look, supped-up Falkirk on Saturday.
Sponsorship has enabled them to recruit a handful of players with Premiership 1 experience and they now appear to be clicking after several indifferent displays in their previous six victories.
Colin Sangster’s men had no answer to a whizz-bang start by their opponents who displayed a merciless cutting edge in running in five tries without reply.
The visitors contributed to their own downfall with an error-strewn display blighted by missed tackles, failed touch-finds and poor decision-making.
Falkirk capitalised with two tries which stemmed from driving mauls and three from some sparkling three-quarters play.
Four conversions and an early penalty kept the scoreboard ticking along.
Caithness did have decent spells of possession and butchered a glorious chance to get on the scoreboard when William Mill gathered a Michael Henderson charge-down before passing to the fly-half.
Henderson had just one opponent in his sights but fatally dithered in releasing the supporting Stevie Campbell who by then had over-run and failed to take the would-be scoring pass.
The Greens enjoyed a strong finish to the half and were inches short of scoring from two driving mauls.
They did break through when quick recycling from a maul saw the ball worked spun wide, with Duncan Sangster’s long cut-out pass releasing Richard Mackay on a run to the line.
Henderson nailed the touchline conversion to reduce his side’s deficit to 7-31.
Sangster had by then overseen a major reshuffle of the back division of his side which lost prop Sinclair Dunnett early on after he was the victim of a gratuitous stamp on the ankle.
The task ahead for the Greens was not helped by them turning to face a stiff breeze.
But they knuckled down well, even after conceding two more tries soon after the interval.
Greens skipper John Foubister and his pack were to make significant inroads in the second period against opponents who appeared to run out of steam.
The visitors got tangible reward for a good spell of pressure when Foubister drove over from the van of a well-executed maul set up at the tail of a line-out.
The looser and less structured the game became, the more it suited the Greens.
After Falkirk ran in their final score of the day, Caithness were to reply with two of their own to produce a far more respectable score-line than could have been imagined at the interval.
The tries, both improved by Henderson, came from wingers Norman Foubister and James Paterson.
The former followed a decent passing sequence while the latter was created by a glorious break-out from replacement scrum-half Kris Hamilton.
The youngster took off from his own 22 and was well into opposition territory before play was sustained through a couple of phases and Paterson went over for the bonus point try.
Colin Sangster was left to reflect on a Jekyll and Hyde display from his charges.
"Falkirk played very well for the first half-hour," he said.
"Their coach told me that is by far the best they have played for a long time.
"I’ve no doubts their performance would hold its own in Premiership 2."
That squares with their recruitment of at least five players with Premiership 1 experience and two useful Kiwis to add to an experienced outfit featuring the McKenzie brothers, veteran ex-Scottish hooker Kevin and former Glasgow Caledonian stand-off Mark.
While acknowledging the qualities of the opposition, Sangster did not seek to hide his disappointment by the shortcomings of his side during their early battering.
"Falkirk scored just about every time they penetrated and also capitalised on everything we did wrong.
"We put ourselves under pressure and got punished."
The coach was confident his side would finish the stronger and just regrets their cause was effectively holed below the waterline so early on.
He said: "After their start, I wouldn’t say that we were ever going to beat them but it was such an open game, we had a lot of chances to score that we didn’t take.
"The score could easily have ended up something like 50-45."
Caithness - R. Mackay, J. Paterson, D. Sangster, W. Mill, N. Foubister, M. Henderson, G. Fryer, J. Foubister (cpt), D. Pottinger, S. Dunnett, R. Macintosh, A. Morris, E. Sutherland, A. Sangster, S. Campbell.
Replacements - T. Sutherland, K. Hamilton and S. Duff (all used).
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