Dawn of a new era for Highland as doors open on revamped Canal Park
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THE weariness and shakes of the head say it all. For Andy Little, this has been eight years in the waiting.
Highland’s chairman has been at the forefront of the club’s push for a new home and finally, come noon tomorrow afternoon, he can rest easy.
Saturday marks a landmark day in the club’s history, with both the first and second teams opening the new ground in front of what is sure to be a bumper home crowd.
The seconds face RAF Lossiemouth in a lunchtime kick-off followed by Dave Carson’s first XV against old foes Gordonians at 3pm. Throw into the mix a former players and officials day, allowing them a grand tour of the revamped complex, the dawning of a new era is likely to be as popular as the closing of the old one.
“I was looking back through my files and this first started back in September 2009,” said Little. “There were rumours flying around about the road (West Link) and I sent a letter to Highland Council’s chief executive asking what was going on.”
Little’s inquisition has netted them this multi-purpose, expansive facility that will be the envy of many a club across Scotland. A wide-open artificial surface is the jewel in the crown, trained on by both seniors and juniors on Tuesday night for the first time. Considering their old clubhouse was torn down in March, to have the new one, pitch and all, in place ready to go in six months, deserves credit all round.
Three hundred tonnes of sand have been used underneath the pitch, which is held together with nothing but glue. It is not anchored or weighted down in any way and from start to finish, including installing drainage, laying the carpet and having it tested, it took just three months to get the pitch completed.
Finishing touches were being made to the clubhouse this week, as the club prepares for its big welcoming party. Little has some positive trepidation about the level of footfall; the capacity for the new bar is 220 and to date, 100 people have indicated they are coming to the opening day on the club’s Facebook page. That does not include players and officials from Highland and the two visiting clubs.
The players have embraced the refit with a great deal of enthusiasm. During the training session it is all business but when given time to reflect, they can appreciate the forward-thinking message this sends out.
“We like to be playing quick rugby and this can be a great weapon for us,” said co-captain Rory Cross. “We’re an ambitious team and this suits us to a tee.”
Cross goes on to detail how he and Highland’s other captain Stuart MacDonald have a determination to secure promotion this season, after seeing their ambitions tail off towards the end of the last campaign.
The spirits remain as high as ever. Cross gets ribbed for sitting out the session due to a cold, as well as for being the team’s “kit-washer” – a reference to a quote yours truly took from head coach Dave Carson on some of the off-field captaincy duties.
“Myself and Stuart have been down to a few of the minis and micros sessions, to integrate the senior squad with the youth teams,” he added. “The aim is to get two of the senior players down every week. It all comes back to the ethos Dave put in place from the start of it being ‘one club’.”
Dave’s son Callum rocks up to the session later than the rest after having physio on a dead leg. His trademark roguish grin tells the full story.
“It’s great this, isn’t it? Can you imagine standing up on that balcony with a pint?”
Carson junior earns his corn as the team’s “social secretary”, as MacDonald puts it. He is the life, soul and particularly the voice of any Highland away trip. Having been on the away day to Orkney this month, I can testify to that.
The pitch will be where the majority of “business” is done but it is not the club’s sole gift. On the ground floor of the new clubhouse there are eight changing rooms, a gym, a beer cellar, two offices and physio rooms. Upstairs adds a couple more offices, a meeting room, a bar and function suite. It is a hub, rather than just a ground.
Outwith the confines of the clubhouse/artificial pitch, where all the attention is inevitably directed, work quietly goes on preparing the full-size grass pitch at the rear of the complex. Site engineers Wills Bros do not anticipate it to be ready for play until the end of May, meaning it will likely be 2018-19 before Highland return to a grass surface.
Their old pitch remains, in the shadow somewhat of its flashier, modernised brother, and will be used for training going forward.
Memories achieved on that pitch and made in the old clubhouse will not be forgotten. The old clubhouse was quaint, comforting, homely; the green-adorned interiors, framed photos of mud-stained faces and accolades of years -gone-by made it a mecca for all those connected with the club. It represented a reliable old friend.
There will have been a tinge of sadness seeing those walls torn down six months ago, to make way for the next step in Highland’s progress on to the national stage. A lot of things may change but in many ways, things will stay the same.
“We prided ourselves, at the old clubhouse, of being unbeatable,” said MacDonald, referring to the three-and-a-half years Highland went without defeat at the old Canal Park. “Hopefully we can turn this into Fortress Highland and start that run again. The place has got a buzz about it already and hopefully that continues.”
Highland will be one of the few clubs in National Three to have such a facility at their disposal. Murrayfield Wanderers, who the greens beat 24-22 a fortnight ago, have an artificial pitch but do not play on it.
It will certainly help cut down on the postponements in the winter months, with the pitch insulated against frost and snow to make it difficult for both to lay. It then just relies on other clubs being able to field teams to travel up to Inverness during the winter.
Gordonians are a fitting opponent for the seniors to face. Between 2014 and 2016, the two sides met five times, with Highland winning two pivotal league encounters and a Caledonia Shield game. A 20-20 draw in April 2016 helped confirm Highland’s promotion to the National Three.
Carson’s side beat them to promotion by a year, with Gordonians following in the footsteps of their fellow north club this summer by claiming the Caledonia One crown and sealing their place in National Three.
“The times we’ve beaten them, our pack has destroyed theirs, so it’ll be a day for the forwards,” said Carson. “We’ve got a big run of games coming up so five points at home is a must.
“It was a memorable last day at the old place and hopefully it’s the same again; I want to see the old boys on the balcony in shirt sleeves, having a pint and watching the game.
“There was probably a lot of people at the club who were against it at the start – they were happy with what we had. But we’ve got the best deal we can and got one of the best facilities in Scotland, certainly for rugby.”
The £3.5 million refurb came as part of the council’s plans to build a bypass in the west of the city, which is scheduled for completion three months ahead of the predicted February conclusion. The local authority and its arms-length charity High Life Highland will manage the site but Highland will look after the ‘social’ side of the complex; running the bar in the clubhouse and reinvesting the takings into the club’s expanding network of teams.
Highland spent more than £40,000 in the last year on travel for its teams, with the junior sides competing in the Shogun Conference against teams from across Scotland. Access to competitive rugby from a young age is key to the production line of talent.
Travel ordeals are nothing new to the senior squads. The seconds have Stornoway and Shetland in Caledonia Two North, while the first team have already undertaken the two-day trip to Orkney. They have a 10-hour round-trip to Newton Stewart in Dumfries next weekend and an away date with St Boswells, based in Melrose in the Borders, on October 21. Both will require overnight stays for at least 25 players and staff, plus coach travel. That does not come cheap.
But such is the necessary expense of a club, not just a team, determined to seize opportunities to progress as far as possible. Promotion to National Two, the third tier of Scottish Rugby, is next on the agenda, after finding their feet in this division a year ago.
“We missed out last year through inexperience and not being able to see out games,” said Cross, Highland’s leading try-scorer this season with four. “But we’ve learned lessons already; against Murrayfield Wanderers we were up against it but stood up and killed the game off. Last year, we were prone to making mistakes and switching off.”
The fact the firsts, seconds and under-18s squads all trained together reflect Dave Carson’s ‘one club’ mantra; everyone is part of the same banner come Saturday.
Players in all squads are on their toes. MacDonald reflects that his own position, even as one of the captains, is under threat if he does not perform. The quality of player in the second team, that could easily justify their spot in the team above, does not number few.
“This year, there’s been a lot more commitment all-round,” he said. “There’s old players like Morris Dillon and Tam Magowan down every Sunday morning with the minis and micros and you want to come down and help them.”
A message of unity across the sporting spectrum has been in the headlines prevalently in the last week. As a club, Highland is united heading into a new era.
