Highland head coach Dave Carson urges side to have no regrets after Murrayfield bow
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
DAVE Carson’s final message to his Highland squad will be simple: have no regrets.
Murrayfield beckons for his side in the BT National Shield final against Carrick tomorrow and head coach Carson has roused the players for a final push towards glory.
Highland’s remarkable season, in which they are unbeaten in the league and can clinch the title next weekend, will be capped off with a victory against their West Division One opponents, who upset the odds to defeat St Boswells in the semi-finals.
Preparations have been kept as normal as possible although, refreshingly, Carson admits it is impossible to treat it as just another game.
Tomorrow is the culmination of three years work since Carson returned to the club and he does not want anyone walking away from the national stadium thinking they could have given more.
“It’s the biggest game of their lives and you never know if you’ll ever get to Murrayfield again,” he said.
“I’ve thought about what I’m going to say before the game and scribbled a few things down, but the biggest thing is to come away having no regrets.
“If you’ve done everything you can to help your team win and aren’t coming away thinking ‘I could have done this or that’, then that’s all anyone can ask of you.
“It’ll be a great crowd, a massive pitch and if we play the rugby we have for the last two or three seasons then it will all come off.”
He has every reason to feel confident. Highland have shown they can dominate teams but when they need to grind out a narrow win in difficult circumstances, they have proved they can do that too. Carson, who has only Tam Magowan (knee) as a fitness doubt for tomorrow, rightly hails the performances over the last month as providing ideal preparation for the final.
Dunfermline and Glenrothes have all been beaten in BT Caledonia League Division One, while the dramatic win over North Berwick pushed the Canal Park to the limit.
A draw against Gordonians last weekend, a game where Carson’s side were 14-0 down at half-time, brought out the character in the squad.
“It’s shown us what we need to work on. No disrespect to those teams but in some games, we haven’t been tested,” he said.
“The last four games have all been tough and if we hadn’t had that, it would have been a shell-shock coming out against what Carrick will throw at us.”
Little is known about Carrick, who sit in third place in their league. They have a similarly stingy defence to Highland – Carrick have conceded 114 points from 15 games to Highland’s 84 – and have won their last five games.
A few snatched YouTube clips and calls to contacts in the central belt has been the extent of Carson’s scouting of Carrick, who postponed their league game against Oban Lorne a week ago to rest up ahead of the Murrayfield clash.
Highland’s main weapon will be its mobile game and on the big Murrayfield pitch, the pace out wide of wingers Craig Findlater and Richard Sim will be hard to stop. The Highland pack is also very competent in the set-pieces as well as in the loose.
On a personal level, Carson will revel in the occasion of taking his side to the national stadium, adding that it will be the biggest game of his coaching career.
“The work put in over the last three years, between myself and the coaching team, has come down to this,” he said. “You don’t get much bigger than taking our team down from the Highlands to Murrayfield.”
Highland have sold more than 200 tickets with five buses making the trip down to Edinburgh for the 1.15pm kick-off. The rest of the club have been put their games and events on hold to allow as many players, staff and supporters as possible to make the trip.
Carson added: “Sometimes you hear of splits between coaches and committees but everyone here is pulling in the same direction, from the board right down to the Minis and Micros. Everyone is pushing this club forward.”
