Dave Carson cannot fault Highland players after Murrayfield heartache
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DAVE Carson refused to find any fault with his players after their 34-27 National Shield final defeat to Carrick.
While pinpointing mistakes that had contributed his side’s downfall at Murrayfield, Carson said their efforts over the course of the season means he cannot be too harsh on them.
A dominant first half display was not reflected on the scoreboard and that handicapped Highland in the second half, with their 12-5 lead quickly eroded by quick counter-attacks from the West Division One side.
A late rally from the Inverness side could not drag them back into the game and they were left wondering what might have been, given that they controlled large portions of the game.
An understandably disappointed Carson had hoped for more from his side but their performances over the course of the 2015-16 campaign, which will almost certainly see them return to National League rugby, acts as a caveat.
“These guys have never given up. We’ve been on the go since July, been all over the place and had seriously hard games, but they kept coming back and back. They’ve done it all season,” said Carson.
“They’re a fantastic bunch of players that play for this club. It’s disappointing for them because they deserved it.
“They were in our half once and got a try out of it. The rest of the time we were on their 10-yard line and only got 12 points out of it, so looking at that you can see we didn’t score enough.
“That 15 minutes changed the game. They got three scores very quickly. We started the second half very well, had the ball but just didn’t keep it. They got the ball wide and counter-attacked well.”
It is the first defeat Highland have tasted since a league loss to Orkney in November 2014, giving some Highland players their first experience of being on a losing side. Carson had previously raised the question about how his side would respond to losing a game, given they had been unbeaten for so long.
Their day was compounded by the news that flanker Paddy Bryden, who scored just before the break, snapped his Achilles tendon in the second half.
The test of how much this defeat will affect them will be seen on Saturday when Carnoustie come to Canal Park, with a win enough to give Highland the title and promotion to National League Three.
In the build-up to the final, Highland had been strongly tested by North Berwick, Glenrothes and Gordonians and perhaps even more so than those games, none of which the greens lost, their weaknesses were exposed by Carrick.
“We ran out of steam towards the end but we still had a chance. The ball just didn’t go to hand. They caught us on the outside three or four times but if we’d kept the ball, we could have sneaked it at the end,” said Carson.
“They were quick but we should still be defending that. They got outside and knew how to damage us, nearly every score was from out wide.”
One of the plus-points of the day was the vocal support that followed Highland to the national stadium, with their supporters drowning out their Carrick counterparts.
Ultimately they had nothing to cheer about at the end but stood as one to applaud the defeat Highland side from the field.
“What a noise they made,” said Highland captain Kevin Brown. “We could hear them throughout and I think they were challenging the 1000-odd supporters that Carrick took. It pushes you on – we probably won that battle.
“We’re all but there in the league and we’ll pick ourselves up. It’s about shutting out games.
“We just didn’t play like we could and it’s just little mistakes. We’ll just have to get up and go again – it’s no-one’s fault.
“The guys put a great effort in but we didn’t play like we should.
“You can’t fault the guys, they put a great shift in but we just didn’t finish it the way we want. Carrick played well and played to our weaknesses.”
