Highland cruise into Shield final after crushing win over Strathmore
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Dave Carson’s side ran in seven tries in their emphatic win and hope to find out this week when and where the final against Glenrothes will be played.
The bad weather which has affected much of the country seemed to have missed Forfar so the playing conditions were more or less ideal for Highland. Carson’s side were quickly back on song and gave Strathmore very few options and ran in four tries without reply in the first-half.
Two came from Dave Titterington and one each by Andrew Findlater and Morris Dillon. The tricky kicking conditions meant no conversions and it was 20-0 at the break. Titterington completed his hat-trick after the break and further tries were added by Sean Blair and Richard Sim.
Carson was pleased to see the level of performance maintained in the second-half. Play that covered the whole park, with fine ball handling and support play to give the home side no way back.
“Getting to the shield final was one of the aims of the boys this season and it promises to be a cracker against Glenrothes,” he said. “It would be nice to get them at home and get a big crowd but no doubt we’d take a bus-load down there too.”
January 30 looks like the earliest possible date for the final, before the start of the Six Nations and when both sides are free from league action. Ahead of the rematch with Strathmore on Saturday in the league, Carson could look to rest a number of his first-team squad with a trip to Caithness pencilled in for the weekend after. Dillon picked up a shoulder injury in the Saturday win and could be one of those given a breather this weekend.
However, it was not such a good weekend for the club’s other sides. The second XV suffered more frustration with the North Police Scotland pulling the game as they had no pitch available. The under-18s lost their fixture when Boroughmuir could not raise a team for the trip to Inverness, meaning disappointment for both squads as they simply want to get games played.
Highland’s second-string have played just once since October 24 after suffering a series of call-offs and for Carson it is a situation that cannot be allowed to continue.
“It’s just dire,” he said. “But hopefully we can get them a run of games over the next few weeks. We’ve got Craig Dunain next weekend, the Police have arranged to play us here in a midweek game under the lights and the Gordonians game has been moved forward. We need to get these guys games to keep pushing the firsts.”
There was a Scottish Rugby Union award for Highland last week when the BT Try of the Month for October went to Steven Rutledge for rounding off a true team effort in Highland’s 53-0 home win over Dunfermline. Thanks to Highland recording all of their games this season, the try and how it was set up can be viewed on the SRU website.
