Highland reach Bowl final
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HIGHLAND’S bid to land the double still remains very much on after overcoming Uddingston 27-13 in the semi-finals of the RBS Bowl.
The North Bowl winners will now look to go one step further than Highland’s successful squad from the 2005/06 campaign when they take on St Boswells in the final on Saturday 19th April at Broadwood Stadium, Cumbernauld.
Right from kick-off, it was Highland that were quickly on top of their game against Uddingston, who won this season’s West Division Three title.
The home side tried to play a more expansive game, yet that came up against the pace of the visitor’s back line, which meant Highland had a clear early advantage. With clean ball being secured, it was spun wide for the backs to run in two early tries from Craig Findlater and Rory Cross that Scott Fraser was unable to convert on both occasions.
Leading 10-0, Highland seemed to lose a bit of focus, although Uddingston simply could not find a breakthrough, despite putting on that little bit more pressure.
Eventually, the city club regained the initiative and with half-time approaching, Gareth High touched down for another unconverted try to put his side 15-0 in front going into the second half.
The game changed course after the restart as the referee pulled a hamstring and one of the touch judges took over the whistle. This now saw Highland suffer a long series of penalties that Uddingston took advantage of to pile on pressure.
Despite Highland continually recovering with good tackling, the home side eventually ground up to the line for their big prop to crash over. A good conversion kick saw Highland’s lead reduced to eight points.
Highland continued to get on the wrong side of the refereeing decisions and further penalties led to two being kick by the accurate Uddingston stand-off and suddenly it was game on again at 15-13.
The visitors found themselves in even more trouble when a tackle by Eamon Guinan was judged to be dangerous and he was sin-binned.
Uddingston, however, had put in a lot of effort to get some points on the board and with Highland’s tackling being felt, the home side’s pressure could not be maintained.
For their part, Highland were slowly restoring their concentration and started playing their normal game. Ball was now being won cleanly again and with their fitness clearly the better of the two teams, the ball began to go wide again.
A fine break in the centre saw Tam Magowan burst through to score near the posts. Craig Irvine converted and Highland were now 22-13 in the lead.
The game was now swung back in Highland’s favour and they were setting up plenty of attacking opportunities. Uddingston continued to battle away, but they began to run out of fitness, as well as tacklers.
The final try came from David Titteringham with ball once again going wide, allowing him to score in the corner. The conversion was sent narrowly wide by Irvine.
Highland coach Alisdair Wemyss, helping to stand-in in for head coach Davie Carson as he recovers from illness, picked out James Taylor and Nathan MacLaughlan for outstanding contributions, while High tackled non-stop throughout the match.
The Caledonia League Division Two North champions now have a final to look forward too, but before then they have two home league fixtures and these are certain to be used to give fringe players a run out and rest those with niggling injuries.
NAIRN Academy will travel to face Plockton High School in the Brewin Dolphin Highlands and Islands Under-18 Bowl final tomorrow (kick-off 1pm).
