ON a pitch that was heavy going for both sides, Highland found it just a bit tougher as they succumbed to a 13-8 defeat to Caithness at Canal Park.
The teams laboured in the strong, cold wind and with hindsight they would have preferred to have had this league game postponed given the horrendous conditions.
Highland started with the benefit of the wind and although it was a help they did not take full advanatge in terms of pressurising the visitors defence.
As it was they managed a solitary try from skipper Ross Thompson as the rest of their efforts were well thwarted by strong tackling.
Even without the tries, however, the Greens should have picked up several penalty opportunities, but the boot of Craig Irvine had an off day.
As a result, Highland only went in at the interval with a slim 5-3 lead after conceding a penalty themselves.
In the second half, the home side seemed to up their game slightly, but they now had to contend with the better kicking from hand of the Caithness players that kept Highland pinned back in their own half.
The Greens were struggling to cope and as a result, the visitors picked up two tries and a penalty to take a 13-5 lead.
Even though Highland pushed for a way back into proceedings, the sin-binning of captain Thompson hampered them before centre David Ramsay was red carded for a dangerous kick.
As the latter stages of the game approached, both sides were now covered in mud and indistinguishable from each other, which made attacking difficult and defending easy.
In the end, only one more score arrived and it came from an Irvine penalty, which helped to resuce a loss bonus point for the hosts.
The conditions may have played a huge part in this contest, but Highland’s director of rugby conceded that Caithness had probably done just enough to edge this encounter.
Meanwhile, the Reds league match away to Ross Sutherland 2nd XV had to be postponed as the home team were struggling to cope with a lengthy injury list.
