Highland Rugby Club look to avenge home defeat to Ayr at Canal Park in Inverness as teams meet in second round of National One fixtures
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Highland Rugby Club will be trying to right the wrong of the first time they played Ayr this season when they make the trip south tomorrow.
At Canal Park back at the start of September, a last-ditch Ayr score saw them edge over the line 13–12 in a game Highland still feel they should have won.
Now, with the reverse fixture on hand and both sides looking to keep themselves in the promotion race, memories of that loss will be used as motivation.
“That was a game we should have won, so we’re going down with a lot of confidence,” head coach Dave Carson said.
“No disrespect to the guys that were playing, but we’ll probably have a much stronger side going down there than we had at home.
“We’ve learned a lot since then, so it’s going to be a good game against a good side.
“They’ve got a few ex-Premiership guys that never went into the Super 6 in their side, who we’ll have to watch out for, but with the way we’re playing I’m looking forward to it.
“I’ve actually watched back the game we lost against Ayr – we had so many chances and we just never took them to get away from Ayr, and we got penalised in the end.”
On top of getting revenge for what was a rare home defeat at the start of the season, tomorrow’s match will give Highland’s players a chance to test themselves against players who have plied their trade at a higher level.
Ayr are one of the Super 6 sides, picked as one of the elite teams in Scottish Club rugby to compete in a division amongst themselves above the club pyramid, but below professional level.
As part of that, the amateur side at the club are capped at National One, but some members of the squad had played for years at Premiership level.
Carson, though, does not expect his players to shy away from the task facing them.
“The guys have played against Premiership opposition in cup games over the years, and we’ve always acquitted ourselves really well,” he added.
“These are the sort of games where players play even better than normal, because they want to prove they’re as good as these quality players, so that’s an incentive for them as well.”
Highland have no new injury issues to worry about coming off last Friday evening’s win at Stirling.
