‘A step too far’ as Greens suffer heavy loss to Highland Seconds
The Greens shipped a heavy loss in their first pre-season outing when they succumbed 96-28 away to a strong Highland Seconds side in Inverness.
Cameron Boyd has been happy with the energy levels and application displayed at training, which got under way at the start of July. But the Caithness coach had no excuses on Saturday as his team were put to the sword by their Caledonian 1 rivals at Canal Park.
Already without half a dozen regulars, further eleventh-hour withdrawals reduced the squad to 17 and meant several were forced to play in unfamiliar positions.
The shellacking they sustained made the first appearances of Aaron Brooks, Grant Mackay and Ian Cook memorable for all the wrong reasons.
It was a particularly tough debut for replacement Cook after a head knock forced the young winger off barely five minutes after entering the fray.
Eighteen-year-old winger Mackay joined older brother Duncan as the latest pair of siblings to feature on the same team sheet. They will look to make as big a mark as their most recent predecessors, the Websters, the Andersons, the Mills, the Boyds and the Foubisters.
Brooks has rugby league experience and showed enough to prove he could challenge for a regular start in the midfield.
Caithness were regularly on the back foot throughout the match, which was played in one 40-minute and two 20-minute sections.
Boyd reflected: “Training had been going really well, so that made our performance particularly disappointing.
“For most of the game, we weren’t carrying with much conviction and there were a succession of individual errors. Our best spell was in the final 20 when we started playing like we’d set out to do.”
Try-scorers for the Greens were number eight Cole Wilson (2), scrum-half Euan MacDonald and hooker Mark Nicolson, with fly-half Jamie Mowat adding eight points from the tee.
Boyd said: “In hindsight, it maybe wasn’t a fixture we should have taken on at this stage. Going down with a squad missing a good few experienced players proved a step too far, but as long as the young guys learn from the experience then it will have been worth it.
“Highland are regularly getting 60 guys to training and they all are comfortable with the style of rugby their coaches want to play. They have speed, good support play and an offloading game and are willing to have a crack from anywhere.”
The result is not a record defeat for the Greens. That remains their 114-0 rout away to Ardrossan Accies in a National League 3 fixture in November 2019.
That eclipsed the 104-3 defeat they suffered at home to Melrose in the Scottish Cup in November 2003.
Caithness continue their preparations for the new season on Saturday with a training game versus Orkney at Millbank.
A three-way tournament was scheduled but Oban Lorne had to call off following the death of a club official.
The game against Orkney will comprise three 20-minute periods, starting at 2.30pm.