Greens get into their stride with dominant display in Aberdeen
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
The Greens put their stuttering start to the season behind them with a five-star display on the road on Saturday.
They kicked on from a dominant opening to fill their boots with nine tries in a 57-21 victory over Aberdeen Wanderers.
Caithness pitched up at Groats Road looking to back up their home win against Hillfoots after losing their opening two matches, to Grangemouth Stags in the cup and Ellon in Caley 1.
As well as steadying the ship, the follow-up victory gives them much-needed confidence as they prepare for a return trip to Grangemouth, this time on league business.
They were quickly into their stride on Saturday and were two converted tries to the good within 10 minutes.
Gordie Macleod and Charlie Quinn were on the end of flowing moves, only for the Greens to cough up possession at the second restart and concede a soft reply.
But the visitors were soon again in the ascendant as their pack sorted out the set-piece problems that had dogged them in previous games.
A stream of front-foot ball saw them in cruise control as prop Hamish Coghill burrowed his way over for the third try.
Cameron Ryder then went over following a quicksilver break.
Macleod crossed again before Coghill added another short-range try before the interval.
A second for Wanderers gave an interval scoreboard of 38-14.
The pattern remained unchanged after the turnaround, with another sparkling solo effort from full-back Ryder three minutes in underlining their dominance.
Wanderers continued to carry a threat on the counter-attack and scored a third try. But their fate was sealed after shipping further tries to winger Nathan Quinn and Coghill.
Ryder kicked six conversions in a man-of-the-match performance.
The result was as welcome as the performance to Caithness coach Kenny Russell.
"You certainly can't complain about a five-point win away from home when we ran in nine tries," he said. "The couple of early scores helped settle the nerves and overall I thought we played really well."
He was happy that there was no repeat of the gremlins that afflicted their scrummaging and lineout play in the earlier outings.
"The set-piece functioned a lot better which gave us a platform to launch our attacks," Russell said. "We were also able to clear the rucks a bit quicker which speeded the game up.
"When we work through the phases and get into our attacking shape, we look so much better. It's when we try to score off the first phase by forcing a pass that is not on that we get into trouble."
Russell said Ryder had a storming display in defence and attack, while flanker Max Kennedy and his replacement Sinclair Bremner also showed up well.
He was also happy with the first run-out from new recruit Graham Bishop, who played outside centre for the closing 20 minutes.
Aspects the coach is looking to work on are his side's retention of the ball at restarts and a tendency of a few in his ranks to tackle on the high side.
The Greens have no game on Saturday as scheduled opponents Blairgowrie have pulled out of the league and joined Caley Midlands League 2.
Russell said: "It kind of stymies the momentum we have built up not having a game this week.
"It also means there are now just seven teams in the league, so it's going to turn into a real stop-start season with big gaps between games."
One plus is that it gives more time for a few knocks and niggles in the squad to clear up before the return trip to face the Stags on October 8.
