Greens keep their place in the league
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ABERDEENSHIRE ........................ 18
CAITHNESS .................................... 3
THE Greens returned empty-handed from Saturday’s trip to the Woodside home of the newly crowned RBS Caley 1 champions.
But they made ’Shire scrap hard to retain their unbeaten home record.
Their programme completed, the Greens had the edge taken off the defeat with news they are now certain to keep their place in the league following Orkney’s 51-14 walloping of Gordonians.
The city side relied heavily on its well-honed setpiece and combative, ball-winning back row to win through by two tries, two penalties and a conversion to a penalty.
Caithness could have troubled the scoreboard more regularly had their lively back division been afforded more attacking opportunities.
Liam Brims and Gordie Macleod did well with what possession they had while Graham Poke and Douglas Webster combined well in a new centre partnership.
Brims put Caithness ahead with a penalty with home stand off Gavin Cunningham replying to tie the scores at the interval.
The game was lost for the visitors in the third quarter when they were unable to respond as Shire upped the tempo.
The pressure resulted in a try for veteran scrum half Gary Leith, converted by Cunningham, whose second penalty put his side 13-3 up.
Caithness rallied and almost replied when a spurt from Poke almost opened the way for a try. But Shire held firm and closed out the deal when a driven maul put hooker Ross Bennie-Coulson over for a late unconverted touchdown.
Caithness coach Colin Sangster said: "It was a competitive game and if our forwards had done just a bit better, we could have got something out of the game. In the first half, we gave them as good as we got and could have gone in ahead at the interval. But then we went into a trough and allowed them to take control of the game.
"We recovered and created a couple of opportunities which we just couldn’t finish off."
The coach reckons Caithness have seriously underachieved in finishing seventh in the 10-team division.
He believes if they buckle down and have a good pre-season, they should have genuine ambitions to win the division next year.
He said: "We have the potential to do it but it depends on just how we go about our business between now and the start of next season. I would certainly expect us to be making a real title challenge next season."
Caithness: B. McIntosh, N. Smith, G. Poke, D. Webster, P. Nicolson, L. Brims, G. Macleod, M. Nicolson, H. Coghill, T. Sutherland, A. Morris, R. Gray, M. Duffy, A. Sangster, R. Coghill. Replacements (used): D. McIvor and Y. Coghill.
The battle to avoid the two relegation spots has turned into a real dogfight involving Glenrothes, Aberdeen University and Gordonians.
A point currently covers them with the Fife club looking most vulnerable with its two remaining fixtures being away to Hillfoots tomorrow and Orkney a week tomorrow.
Though the 15-a-side season is finished, the Greens are continuing to train for the forthcoming sevens circuit, starting with Garioch on April 14 and including the newly revived Caithness Sevens at Millbank on April 28.
Caithness under-18s head across the Pentland Firth tomorrow to play a Caledonian Bowl semi-final versus Orkney.
