Title-chasing Dyce have the upper hand as Yellows rue missed chances
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Caithness 2nd XV slumped to a home defeat in Caley North Regional 4 on Saturday at the hands of title-chasing Dyce.
A late burst of scoring at Millbank took the Aberdeen outfit 33-14 clear, a margin that was harsh on the hard-working Yellows.
The streetwise visitors won thanks to the upper hand they had at the breakdown and the points they scored from long-range turnovers.
Caithness were left to rue two rugby equivalents of football open goals, which could have left the contest wide open at the break.
As it was, they trailed 22-7 after home right winger Kane Cameron's sixth-minute converted try was overhauled by a try, two conversions and penalty from centre Duncan Scott, a Jack Gray try and a penalty try.
The latter was awarded when Scott Mackay was deemed to have tackled Daniel MacGregor as the latter dived to ground the ball after he had booted it in-goal.
The home side paid a double penalty with the Caithness left winger yellow-carded.
Parity was restored after Dyce full-back Jonathan Brophy got 10 minutes in the cooler for a high tackle.
Caithness finished the half the stronger and scrum half Jack Floyd's incision and feed gave Cameron a run-in, only for him to spill the pass.
Russell Mill's chip into an unguarded patch in the shadow of the goal-line was also knocked on.
Cameron reduced the leeway with his second soon after the interval, with Jamie Mowat adding a second conversion.
Both sides had decent spells thereafter but Dyce closed out the contest with Scott grabbing his second touchdown and adding two penalties.
Yellows coach Cameron Boyd said: "We tried some different things in the backs that maybe didn't work out.
"But I was really pleased how we fronted up against them and I don't think the scoreline reflected how close the game was.
"We had two really good chances which we butchered at the end of the first half and we had good spells of pressure in the second half that we couldn't convert."
The coach singled out lock Dave MacIntosh for praise, while he said 1st XV regulars Kevin Budge and Hamish Coghill each made a big impact when they came on after the interval.
The Yellows are away to Fraserburgh on Saturday.
