Highland's road warriors prepare for first big journey of league campaign
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HITTING the road for long journeys is not going to phase Highland this season.
They face their first big away venture this weekend when they play Haddington, who are based in East Lothian, just outside of Edinburgh.
It will mean a 360-mile round trip for the Canal Park club but given their experience in travelling when in the lower leagues, head coach Dave Carson does not anticipate any issues tomorrow.
Given their comprehensive victories over St Boswells in the cup and Orkney in their league opener, Highland will carry confidence into the Haddington game after disposing of fellow National Three sides.
Haddington lost narrowly to St Boswells, 20-17, in their first league game, and went down 48-21 in their BT Cup clash with Kirkcaldy the week before.
While each new opponent represents a step into the unknown for Highland, clocking up the miles will not have an adverse effect.
“We’ll get away about half-past eight tomorrow morning, which gives us about five hours to get there plus a stop on the way,” said Carson. “It’s not something that should faze us because we’ve done it before.
“We’ve targeted three games – Orkney, Dumfries and St Boswells – as games where we’ll do three-quarters of the journey on the Friday, stay overnight then do the rest on Saturday. But the boys are fine with doing the Edinburgh games in one day.”
Carson is back from a short holiday and faces making some changes to his squad. Due to injuries and those returning to university, Lyall Archer heads south while fellow props Stuart Watson and Jonny Milton are still injured and centre Rory Cross is on holiday. Dave Titterington and Darren McLeod will feature, especially if scrum-half Tom Brogan fails a fitness test after picking up a concussion last week.
McLeod is a particularly interesting prospect, given that he has just returned from Australia after playing Australian Rules Football. He was also a part of the all-conquering Highland side three years ago.
“His international clearance from Australia didn’t come through until Friday last week, so we didn’t want to risk putting him in the squad for Orkney,” said Carson.
“He got a couple of tries for the seconds last week and he’s a good addition to have, especially with Richard Sim retiring. The fact he’s played Australian Rules is another skill he can bring to the side.”
So far the depth of the squad and the experienced players available means the squad is still strong. Confidence is high that Highland can come away points and make a serious push in the division.
The second XV are also on the road, although on a much shorter trip to RAF Lossiemouth. The forces side can be quite a handful up close and Highland will have to keep the game mobile, as well as tiring out the opposition. With some players moving up, the squad will be slightly weaker, although it gives the fringe players a chance to show what they can do.
RAF Lossiemouth started the league a week earlier and already have two bonus-point wins over Stornoway and Ross Sutherland. If Highland want to make waves in BT Caledonia League Two West they will need something from this game.
Last weekend was tough going for Highland’s junior sides in the President’s Conference with only the under-13s registering a good win. There are signs that the squads are picking up though after a difficult opener at Ayr.
This weekend the Conference opposition is Stirling County and it starts with the under-18s on Saturday at home. On Sunday the under-16s and under-15s travel to Stirling while the under-14s and under-13s at are home.
The Minis and Micros are also at Canal Park at 11am for their training sessions.
