Highland home in on derby success at expense of rivals Caithness
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The 17-5 win at Strathmore a week ago was more fraught than Highland would have liked but Carson is relishing the visit of the Thurso-based side to Canal Park.
Highland are boosted by the return of number eight Stuart MacDonald and winger Andrew Findlater, however prop Stuart Watson is unlikely to be risked with an ankle injury while Murdo Paterson is away at university. Kevin Brown will move to tight-head prop with Callum Carson coming in at hooker. Andrew Findlater will move to flanker.
“Caithness had a good win last weekend — I’m not sure what kind of side Carnoustie fielded but it’s still a top result,” said head coach Dave Carson. “Everyone loves a home derby and you can’t beat winning one at home.
“They had quite a few injuries at the start of last season which didn’t help them. I’d hope to see them bring a few young lads through too.”
Watson’s injury is still a couple a weeks away from clearing up and with Johnny Milton ruled out until Christmas with a broken wrist, Carson is reluctant to push Watson too soon.
Milton is putting himself to good use during his absence from the first team, however, acting as cameraman for all of Highland’s games.
The footage will be edited to help Carson and the coaching team make tweaks and adjustments to the team’s performances.
“There’s no hiding place when there’s a camera on you. If you make a mistake it’s there for all to see” said Carson. “It’ll enable us to do some sessions with it and it’s certainly worth the effort.
“We’ll probably look at it every two or three weeks or so as I don’t want to take an hour out of training every week.
“Andrew Findlater has put some of the footage online, so players can edit and comment on it themselves, which means we don’t all have to be together to analyse it.”
Highland’s five junior squads enter their second weekend of the President’s Conference and with three wins from five last weekend and a lot of tries scored they are well set up for Saturday’s and Sunday’s challenge against Stirling County.
The under-18s are at home on Saturday with a 2pm kick-off and they learnt a lot against West of Scotland which will hopefully have them ready for a strong County side. On Sunday the under-16s and under-15s play County at Canal Park, while the under-14s and under-13s travel to Bridgehaugh Park, all with 1pm starts.
The Minis and Micros have their training sessions on Sunday at 11am.
