Boyd pleased with work ethic as Greens run in eight tries against Aberdeen Wanderers
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Caithness racked up their highest points tally of the season away to Aberdeen Wanderers on Saturday.
They ran in eight tries in posting a 46-19 win which lifts them to third spot in Caledonian Region League 1.
Head coach Ewen Boyd said their unrelenting work ethic was at the root of their second victory in a demanding run of three fixtures on the road.
He would have taken a win of any denomination early on Friday evening when call-offs diminished a squad already hit hard by injuries and work commitments.
"We just had a team and no more, though thankfully we had no real Covid issues," he said.
"It was the perfect storm and we were really struggling until we managed to get a few additions late on."
Among them were prop Hamish Coghill and a couple of exiles, scrum-half Stuart Kirk and centre Nathan Quinn. The latter are dual-registered and were able to turn out for the Greens after their scheduled matches with their other clubs, Dundee and Bo'ness, were called off.
Boyd said: "We ended up travelling with 19 and the three guys who came in made a big difference."
The head coach was delighted to see his side's high-octane start pay dividends as they regularly made inroads deep into opposition territory.
By the interval they had banked a bonus point with four well-worked tries.
Wanderers are going through a tough time, having lost their head coach, and this was the latest hefty reverse suffered by the Groats Road outfit.
Their squad featured a handful of debutants from the club's under-18 ranks with all impressing, which augurs well for the future.
The only concern for the visiting camp was midway through the second half when Wanderers enjoyed a brief spell in the ascendancy.
They grabbed two tries in quick succession to add to their first-half counter.
That narrowed the lead to 10 points but any thought this might be the start of the tide turning was quickly dispelled by another at the other end.
There seemed little obvious danger when flanker Max Kennedy latched onto a wayward pass on the Greens' 10-metre line but his lung-busting run eluded a string of defenders en route to the line.
"Max put in a really good shift," Boyd said.
"He tackled hard, ran well and did his bit in the lineout. He was a worthy winner of our man-of-the-match award."
Boyd said the whole squad contributed to the success, while giving other special mentions to lock forward Sinclair Bremner and fly-half Jamie Mowat.
All the three late call-ups ended up on the scoresheet with Quinn getting a brace and Kirk and Coghill weighing in with one apiece.
Scott Webster and Calum Hill also crossed with a penalty try and two conversions from Mowat completing the tally.
Boyd said: "There were a lot of positives from the performance.
"The scrum was the only area we had a hard time. They had a prop who was pretty good at disrupting our set-up.
"We need to work at getting lower and getting our feet alignment sorted out.
"But I thought that everywhere else we were quite comfortable and it was also great to get a second away win on the bounce.
"What pleased me most was the work ethic they showed."
Boyd is frustrated the Greens will not get the chance to sustain the momentum from their win against Aberdeen Wanderers as they have no Caledonian Region League 1 fixtures over the coming two weekends.
The Greens travel to face leaders Dunfermline on March 5 and host fourth-placed Ellon the following Saturday.
"Our focus will be entirely on training hard and preparing for our next two games," Boyd said.
"We need to get in the right mindset for these two games and how we perform in them will go a long way to defining our season."
The eagerly awaited women's game between Caithness Krakens and Shetland at Millbank on Saturday was scratched after the visitors called off with a mix of Covid cases and injuries.
The islanders now need a single point to clinch the Caley North Region League after Orkney edged to a 12-7 win at Peterhead on Saturday.
The Krakens, meanwhile, need one point to finish third, which would be a notable achievement in their debut season. A new date for the fixture has yet to be set.
