Promotion over pain for Highland as they seek championship glory
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DAVE Carson is urging his side to lift themselves from their National Shield agony for a final push for promotion tomorrow.
A cloud has hung over Canal Park after their 34-27 Murrayfield loss to Carrick last weekend, with Carson sensing some of his squad were on a downer at training on Tuesday night.
However, the prize of a spot in National League Three, which can be sealed with a win over Carnoustie, should be enough to focus minds and cap a remarkable three-year turnaround.
While coming to terms with the Carrick defeat has been difficult, given that Highland errors contributed to their downfall, perspective is important and has been raised in the build-up to Carnoustie’s visit.
“One of the boys said in the changing rooms after the game that if we beat Carnoustie, that’ll be two promotions and two cup finals in three seasons,” said Carson. “Considering we started off in the lowest possible regional league, that’s massive.
“The last few weeks we’ve been saying that we haven’t won anything yet, but that’s not the case this weekend. The boys know exactly what they have to do. They want to put the game to bed early and get those mistakes out of their system.”
The Murrayfield post-mortem will be put on hold for another week as the club focuses on getting the first XV promoted, while a win for the second string away to Aberdeen University Medics will inch them closer to promotion from Caledonia League Three.Victory tomorrow and promotion, which they narrowly missed out on a year ago, will be just reward for Carson and his coaching staff for their efforts since returning to the club in 2013.
“Everything has grown,” said Carson. “A big thing for us has been the quality of junior players we’ve kept around, which has made the second XV competitive.
“We used to struggle to field one side, now we’re having to leave boys out of two teams, which is fantastic.”
Carson will be deprived of Paddy Bryden (Achilles), Jonny Milton (hand) and Rory Cross (hamstring) but Grant Jamieson and Ben Gordon are included, who made a big impact in the final when they came on. There will have to be a selection balancing act so as not to weaken the 2nd XV as they too have a big game but the large playing pool looks likely to be able to cover.
With Caithness beating Glenrothes last weekend it just leaves Highland requiring three points from three games to overtake Gordonians and be crowned champions. A win would return Highland to a level they have not played at since the 1990s.
Highland’s second XV have an edge over title challengers Banff and a win will keep the pressure on, knowing that they have an easier last game of the season at home to Fraserburgh. A bonus-point win will be the target against a side who are normally quite a handful but who are already out of the title race.
If last Saturday was not enough for the club’s supporters there is another Finals’ Day this Sunday with the Caledonia Junior Finals at Madras Rugby in St Andrews. All three of Highland’s top junior sides are travelling, with the under-18s at Stirling County in the cup final, the under-16s against Perthshire in the Bowl Final and the under-15s also against Perthshire in the Shield Final.
