Greens round off season with chastening defeat to Aberdeenshire
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The Greens' Caledonia 1 season ended as it began – with a chastening defeat.
Their 45-0 doing at the hands of Aberdeenshire on Saturday leaves them fourth but the latter need just one win from their three outstanding matches to overhaul them.
The young, fledgling Caithness side were soon under the cosh at Woodside. They were undone by a well-drilled if not particularly flashy ’Shire side who amply avenged their narrow defeat in Thurso in November.
The Greens' pack took a beasting in the scrum where they were regularly shunted back, while gremlins continued to affect their lineout.
The visitors also struggled to cope with the movement and trickery of ’Shire captain Paul Harrow. The scrum-half's sparky breaks from the set-piece and his support running earned him four tries.
For good measure, he chipped in with five conversions to net a haul of 30 points.
The north-east side had virtually ended the contest after going 21-0 up within 15 minutes, with Harrow scoring either side of flanker Logan Bean and number eight Jason Burton.
The Greens responded with a decent spell ending when they worked an overlap on the left flank only to be undone by a forward pass.
Caithness centre Scott Webster was prominent at the other end with a thumping cover tackle to prevent his opposite number Kenny Penman from crossing after a storming run.
Harrow soon grabbed his second and third with sniping runs in which he fended off or outflanked a posse of would-be tacklers.
Before the interval, full-back Mike MacGulash got in on the act when he followed up his close-range grubber to regather and cross.
With the score 38-0 at the interval, that the home side scored just one more try was testament to the resistance they faced.
Visiting number eight Reece Coghill was as prominent in defence as during his side's rare forays but his frustration over the way the game was going got the better of him following a tangle he got involved in with Harrow. His part in it was marked with a yellow card.
The home scrum-half was soon showing a clean pair of heels again as he went over for his fourth try of the day midway through the half.
The game degenerated until the closing five minutes which were played in the shadow of the ’Shire try-line.
The platform was created by a neat interchange between Euan MacDonald and Max Kennedy. The subsequent siege saw lock Kevin Brims, Webster and debutant prop Lachlan Jardine, in turn, thwarted within inches of the line.
The last action saw Coghill break from a scrum and reach to touch down only to lose the ball as he was tackled from behind.
In the absence of regular coach Kenny Russell, club stalwart Hamish Coghill looked after the team.
"It was very disappointing," he said. "We never really got going.
"Our scrum was put under a lot of pressure and we had problems with our lineout.
"But our guys never gave up and it would have been nice to have finished off the pressure we had at the end with a try."
He singled out Webster and veteran full-back Dave McCarthy as the pick of the backs and Jardine for his tireless work rate and aggression on his debut.
