Sangster and Brims play key roles as Caley Reds earn a place in inter-district final
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Underdogs Caley Reds produced a rousing display to win a place in the final of the newly reinstated Scottish inter-district rugby championship.
Their 58-25 eclipse of Glasgow and the West in Inverness on Saturday pits them in this Sunday's final versus the South.
Two men with strong Caithness connections played key roles in the victory on Highland's 4G surface at Canal Park.
The side from the Caledonia region – taking in all points north and west of the Forth Road Bridge – was coached by Colin Sangster, while stand-off Liam Brims, an ex-Green, scored 23 points.
The 29-year-old PE teacher contributed six conversions, two penalties and a try.
Reds drew largely from the upper echelons of the National Leagues while their opponents mainly play for leading Premiership clubs such as GHK, Marr and Glasgow Hawks.
The win delighted Sangster, who had three spells as Caithness coach while based in Wick and Watten.
"I was confident we could win but I never thought for one minute we would score as many points," he said.
Sangster, who is director of rugby at Dundee Rugby Club, said: "If you look at the two teams on paper, you'd have to say Glasgow would be clear favourites.
"We gave them a framework we thought played to their strengths and the players executed the game plan really well.
"They bonded really well at our day camp at Strathallan and in the warm-up match [against British Army in Scotland RFC] and everything came together on Saturday."
He added: "Just because some of these guys are not playing Premiership doesn’t mean they don’t have the potential to play that level, which they showed out there."
Sangster, who coached Brims through the mini and junior ranks through to Caithness 1st XV, added: "Liam stepped up as he has not played a lot of rugby recently. He played really well."
Brims left Caithness to study at Stirling University before joining the teaching staff of St Columba's School in Kilmacolm.
His rugby career has seen him represent his university, Falkirk and Stirling County as well as turn out for semi-pro Super6 side Stirling Wolves.
He has spent the last five years at Premiership side Glasgow Hawks, though his recovery from a knee injury while playing for the Wolves has seen him only play a couple of games this year.
Brims said: "We knew it was going to be a tough game for us and they would have started as clear favourites."
He said it was important for the Reds to recover from a misfiring opening five minutes with their blitz of three unanswered tries.
"We got a lot of confidence from that and never really looked back afterwards," said Brims, whose parents live at Gills.
"They closed the gap towards the end of the first half but once we started to play our wide, attacking game in the right areas – and not try to do things too early – we kept in charge."
The Reds now play in the final versus the South at Braidholm on the south side of Glasgow on Sunday.
The latter qualified with a convincing 52-7 victory over Edinburgh at Howe of Fife.
