Highland let start slip at Watsonian's with bonus point defeat in Edinburgh
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Head coach Dave Carson was left frustrated by Highland’s National One 32–25 defeat at Watsonian's, believing they had their best start to a match this season.
That was one of the the aspects of their performance Carson wound up ruing – as their hard work was undone before the interval, when they went in 24–12 down.
Highland could not find a way to get their noses back in front, and ended up having to settle for a losing bonus point with the final score 32–25 against them.
“We probably started the best we have this season.
“We got a great start, and we had a couple of good times – I think it was Junior Waqanibau and Callum Carson that scored.
“Things were going well, but then we let two soft tries slip just before half time and we got a guy in the bin, so we lost a bit of momentum there.
“We came back really well as we have done in the past. It just wasn’t to be.
“In the last 10 minutes though we were camped on their line, and they gave away eight or nine penalties at least and the referee never binned anyone.
“They continued to infringe to stop us scoring, which was really frustrating.”
Carson would argue his case to the referee after the full time whistle, but he says those decisions at the end were not what cost his side a result.
“I had a chat with the ref about it after the game, and I wasn’t saying we lost because of that – we gave away a couple of soft tries that we shouldn’t have given away – but it’s consistency we’re looking for,” Carson reasoned.
“He wasn’t consistent. I noted down seven penalties in my book, and I put it down after that because I was so frustrated.
“We had six or seven opportunities to score and they infringed to stop us, and he never took any action.
“He’s missed it, and players make mistakes and referees make mistakes, you just have to get on with it.”
