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| CAITHNESS 13 - HOWE OF FIFE 8 by Iain Grant |
| Fri 8th Dec 2006 |
The feel-good factor returned to the Greens after this morale-boosting win at Millbank which ended a five game losing sequence in National League Division 2.
After taking the early initiative when a 10-0 lead did not reflect their dominance, they comfortably absorbed long spells of pressure and seemed destined for a relatively stress-free victory until an alarming late collapse.
Howe arrived on the back of a good run of form which had seen them move to within a point of second place.
But they posed little in the way of an attacking force until the death throes of the match.
They had to wait until three minutes from time before troubling the score-board, with a penalty.
But with Caithness number eight Andrew Sangster in the sin-bin, Caithness faded out of the contest, with their previous sound defensive lines looking brittle and vulnerable as the Cupar men sensed a dramatic salvage job could be on.
With two minutes left, they had crossed the Greens’ line and only the thickness of the bar kept out the conversion which would have levelled the scores.
Blair McIntosh’s third successful kick of the day gave Caithness much much-needed breathing space.
It proved the final score of the day but Howe almost snatched victory with the final play in which their under-18 Scotland full-back Peter Horne knocked on in front of an unguarded line.
Defeat or even a draw would have been rough justice on the home side who looked in control of proceedings until these dramatic closing minutes.
Howe are making a strong bid to progress from NL2 where they have been for the past couple of seasons.
Their push is fuelled by a very successful youth set-up, with Horne one of four junior internationalists, three of which were in Saturday’s travelling party.
Howe currently top the Caledonian Premier Under-18 League while the club also run the Bell Baxter school side.
The latter have just beaten Edinburgh Academy 62-12 to reach the last eight of the Scottish Schools Cup.
The recent form-book counted for nothing on Saturday in the opening 20 minutes when the visitors were firmly on the back foot in the face of a determined and well-organised Greens side.
With their pack establishing an early upper hand in the setpiece and looking the livelier about the field, they were soon creating go-forward attacking platforms.
Their try came after five minutes following a couple of surges down the left side attacking the tennis court end.
Scrum-half Kris Hamilton found Stevie Campbell in the first receiver role on the Howe 10 yard line.
The hooker’s eye for a gap saw him skip between two props to find only Horne blocking his way to the line.
A combination of a sidestep and a hand-off saw him break clear and he evaded the cover to touch down at the posts.
McIntosh landed the extra points and minutes later kicked a penalty to put the Greens 10-0 up.
Caithness retained the initiative and looked good value to increase their lead, only to be thwarted by a combination of poor execution and bad luck.
Howe also resorted to illegal means deep in their own 22 to halt several impressive opposition driving mauls.
Having already had two advances cynically collapsed, the Greens had a fair shout for a penalty try when two visitors blocked another dynamic maul from a lineout by prostrating themselves in the shadow of their own line.
Caithness also threatened several times in open play with converted winger James ‘Pigeon’ Sinclair going close with a kick-and-chase.
Ref Kenny Pottinger soon had his hands full in trying to deal with a cantankerous atmosphere, fuelled by a number of dust-ups.
Howe number eight Pete Black was rarely far away from the trouble and it was no surprise that he was the first sin-binning after a run-in with Campbell.
Campbell’s involvement in the affray saw him also dispatched to touchline for a 10 minute cooling-off period.
Howe only also featured in several incidents involving reckless footwork, with lock forward Mike Donaldson remaining on the pitch only because his stamp on George Sutherland’s head went unseen by the ref.
Caithness were reduced to 13 men shortly before half-time when centre Duncan Sangster was carded for a tackle on opposite centre Barry Dunnett, which Mr Pottinger deemed dangerous.
This came during the only spell in the half when Howe made serious inroads into the home 22.
Turning down the chance to go for goal from the penalty, they opted to kick down the line.
From the five-metre line-out, their surge took them to the scoring zone only for Donaldson to lose control of the ball in the van of the maul.
The half ended with the respective packs squaring up to each other and engaging in a sporadic bout of sparring.
Howe saw a lot more of the ball in the second half though they struggled to breach a resistant, offensive defence.
Stand-off Sam Spittle did cut loose five minutes after the break with a fine, arc-ing break, which could easily have created a try with quicker first-up support.
It sparked a spell in the Caithness 22 which was almost dramatically ended when Duncan Sangster - back in the fray - almost gathered an interception which would have given him a clear run-in.
The Caithness tackle count mounted while Hamilton had to show both speed and dexterity in getting back to touch down a chip through in-goal.
A break-out, featuring a thundering short burst by Tommy Sutherland, relieved the pressure.
It ended with quick ball recycled from the last of a series of rucks end with left wing James Paterson’s run and chip creating panic stations in the Howe defence.
Caithness lived dangerously when pressing in the opposition 22 when two wayward passes fell invitingly the way of Dunnett.
He was unable to gather the first which would have seen the field open up for him.
He pouched the second and set up a dangerous foray which was snuffed out by good Caithness cover.
With 10 minutes, the cracks were starting to appear in the home ranks.
A fine run from Howe replacement Alan Booth penetrated the first line of defence and only desperate scramble defence, in which Evan Sutherland played a central role, prevented a score.
A fast-tiring home outfit were left short-handed with Andrew Sangster’s sin-binning for a punch with seven minutes left.
Howe’s Graham Steedman duly nailed a penalty before an attack down the left created an overlap and winger Gavin Imrie scooted in at the corner despite a marvellous last-ditch tap, tackle by Hamilton.
Steedman’s touchline conversion struck the top of the bar before bouncing back towards him.
Caithness got some much-needed respite when Howe offended from the restart and McIntosh nervelessly spliced the posts from midway between the posts and the right corner post.
The four minutes of injury time took an eternity to pass for the home camp as Howe looked capable of scoring every time they won possession.
Caithness did not help their cause by twice missing touch from clearing penalties.
The second mistake right at the death was the prelude to a long-range attack culminating with the would-be scoring pass being spilled by Horne.
Had he taken it, he would have been in under the posts to almost certainly give his side an unlikely victory.
Greens’ coach Colin Sangster is no doubt where the problem lay with his side’s late collapse.
"Fitness was undoubtedly an issue in the last 10 minutes," said the coach.
"Our defence performed very well until then but we ended up all over the shop.
"Our defensive line was disorganised and we started to stand off them. It turned out to be a bit of a nail-biter."
Sangster was pleased with his side’s strong start to the game and believed they deserved to be ahead by considerably more than 10 points at the interval.
He was unhappy Mr Pottinger did not take a firmer line with the spoiling tactics adopted by the visitors.
Overall, he was delighted to have got a much-needed victory but, on viewing the video of the match, was troubled by his side’s high error count and, of course, their late fade-out.
He believes the fitness problem stems from training numbers being hit by work commitments and players coming back from injuries.
He said: "We try to play a high-tempo sort of game and if our fitness levels are lacking, that is going to take its toll in the closing stages of the game."
Caithness - R. Mackay, J. Paterson, B. McIntosh, D. Sangster, J. Sinclair, G. Fryer, K. Hamilton, J. Foubister (cpt), S. Campbell, S. Dunnett, A. Morris, E. Boyd, G. Sutherland, A. Sangster, E. Sutherland. Replacements - T. Sutherland and G. Anderson (both used) and A. Macauslan (unused).
Howe of Fife - P. Horne, E. Jack, B. Dunnett, S. Wilson, G. Imrie, S. Spittle, D. Smith, S. Player, G. Steedman, R. Watts, M. Donaldson, M. Black, W. Pickard, P. Black, I. Wilson. Replacements - S. McGowan, C. Mason and A. Booth. (all used).
Ref - Mr K. Pottinger.
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