Highland second-string close to century
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HIGHLAND’S 2nd XV battered Fraserburgh for the second week runnning with a 99-0 rout at Canal Park.
The score improved on their previous week’s 60-0 victory and puts them in second place in the table, behind Aberdeen Wanderers 2nd XV.
Morris Dillon, a coach for Highland’s first team, showed his wealth of experience by playing his first 80 minutes for four years.
Also on Saturday, Highland’s under-18s played their long delayed National Cup match with West of Scotland and emerged 12-3 victors.
The home side took quite a while to shrug off the eight weeks of inactivity, and although they were bright enough from the start, the scoring opportunities were squandered with poor decision-making and slack passing.
The visitors’ defence was also strong enough to thwart Highland, even though the home side had most of the possession.
Frustration crept in with no scores and several penalties were given away. One was converted to give West a three point lead and they were unlucky with a long range effort at the end of the half.
The second half started with Highland’s control increasing, but unable to find the final plays that would yield scores. The pressure eventually paid off and in the final quarter a series of scrums in the West 22 led to some frantic defending. The ball came loose from a scrum and shot over the try-line with Aiden Kent reacting quickest to touchdown.
Highland were now settling back into their normal game and with continued pressure they took a scrum instead of kicking a penalty. The decision was rewarded as the controlled scrum allowed Euan Milton at number eight to pick up and crash over. The conversion was missed and the game ended 12-3 in Highland’s favour.
On Sunday the bad news continued for the under-16s as their National Bowl game with Peebles was again postponed due to frozen pitches.
Former Highland junior player Patrick Kelly played for Scotland’s under-20s against France on Saturday and it was a tough introduction to this level as France were convincing 47-6 winners.
Two current Highland under-18s were also in action, on opposite sides. Bruce Flockhart played for the Scotland under-18s against a Scotland District XV which had Fionnlagh Call in their ranks. In a closely fought game the Scotland U18’s won 29-12.
