Ruaridh MacDonald still a big part of Highland's plans despite leg break
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INFLUENTIAL Highland fly-half Ruaridh MacDonald will remain a big part of Highland’s plans this season according to head coach Dave Carson, despite breaking his leg in the National Shield semi-final.
MacDonald was taken off eight minutes into the narrow 25-24 win over their East Regional League opponents North Berwick and will miss the final against Carrick on April 16.
His replacement Craig Irvine kicked the decisive points on Saturday afternoon, converting Craig Findlater’s try with a matter of minutes left to book Highland’s place at Murrayfield next month.
The one downside for head coach Dave Carson, who admitted he was “exhausted without running a step” after the dramatic victory, was MacDonald’s injury, which at first looked innocuous.
“You could hear this click at the top of his ankle as he was coming off. He went to see a specialist at Raigmore on Sunday to see how bad it was but I can’t see him being back this season,” said Carson. “Ruaridh’s been such an integral part of our squad this year and he’s pretty down about the whole thing. But that’s sport for you.
“He will come along with us for the next three or four weeks because he’s helped us to get where we are.”
MacDonald will miss the clash with West Regional side Carrick, who upset the odds to defeat Borders Shield winners St Boswells 19-13, ending their incredible run of 59 consecutive wins dating back to April 2013.
Carrick are third in the West Division One table with 11 wins from 14 games, 16 points behind leaders Glasgow Accies.
Work has already begun off the park to prepare for the big day, with buses planned for supporters and the club’s youth teams to travel to Edinburgh.
Carson will start his on-field preparations in the coming week, while keeping an eye on the important Caledonia League Division One fixtures away to Glenrothes and Gordonians.“We don’t know anything about Carrick, so I’ll start speaking to a few contacts down the other end of the country who know a bit about them,” he said.
“It’ll allow us to work on a few specific things in the build-up.”
In the meantime, Carson’s main task will be to keep minds focused on the weeks ahead, with potential title-clinching fixtures in their sights. Comprehensive wins over Glenrothes and Gordonians at Canal Park earlier this season make the Greens firm favourites for repeat results, given their last defeat on the road was November 2014.
“It’s cup final after cup final at the moment,” said Carson, who has no other injury concerns apart from MacDonald. “The mathematicians at the club are working out if we beat Gordonians and Glenrothes, whether that will near enough be it for the title.
“We’re hoping to win it at home to Carnoustie.“The players know it themselves – they’re desperate to go up to National Three. We’ve got our two hardest games away from home coming up, so they know they have to perform as well as they have all season and not put pressure on themselves.”
Glenrothes are first up this coming Saturday, with their penultimate away league game against Gordonians a week later, seven days before the National Shield final.
Home games against Carnoustie and Hillfoots follow that, with the away tie against the latter concluding the season on May 14.
It is back to normality this week for Carson and Highland, with some broken and battered bodies returning to training tonight.
“I spoke to the captain, Kevin Brown, yesterdayMonday and he said he felt worse than he did after the game,” added the first XV head coach. “The boys were out on their feet at the end. They had nothing left in the tank.
“It was probably our worst display in the last three years. We dropped so many balls and didn’t react to what they were doing. But the boys never gave up trying to produce something.”
