Dave Carson keen to get Highland Rugby Club scoring more points to aid National One promotion push startying against Glasgow Accies
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Title-chasing Highland have been piling in the work on attacking play and try-scoring in a quest to reap more bonus points.
Ahead of a crucial encounter with Glasgow Academicals tomorrow at Canal Park, head coach Dave Carson shifted emphasis slightly.
Storm Babet denied Highland – six points behind the leaders – a mouthwatering top of the table clash away to Ayr, the team with seven wins from seven, last Saturday.
But the unexpected lay-off has offered Highland the chance to lick their wounds and re-focus after a magnificent last-gasp win at Gala the week before.
“We’ve looked at the table over the last couple of weeks and realised we’re not scoring enough tries,” Carson said.
“Our defence is the best in the league and we’ve conceded the fewest points, so that’s working well.
“We’ve now been working especially hard on our attack and we want to see if we can start scoring a few more tries as we need to start picking up more bonus points to peg back that six-point deficit on Ayr.
“Hopefully that will start at home on Saturday.”
Glasgow Accies, National Two champions last season, have taken their winning habit up a division with five victories and two defeats.
“They’ve done exceptionally well,” Carson stressed.
“They are right up there with us in the table on 27 points, but they have a better points difference than us.
“They’ve had two wins of more than 60 points, including a fantastic win away to Melrose which was a big surprise.
“They’ve picked up seven bonus points to our three, so there’s your difference.
“They’re going to be a good side. We played them coming up through the leagues and they always had a great set of backs.
“They like to get the ball wide and attack. With the way they are scoring tries, it looks like they’re approaching it in exactly the same way in National One.”
Carson, though, feels the Ayr trip postponement may be beneficial in the longer-term with some hard-working squad members gaining rest and one or two players having had the time to recover fro injury.
“Our coach company were in touch at Friday lunchtime to say there was a red weather warning for Tayside, which we would drive through. It was a no-brainer,” he admitted.
“But that’s us played seven of what would have been 15 straight weekends from the start of the season. It was an opportunity to give the boys a weekend off.
“Our tighthead prop Stuart Watson (neck injury) wasn’t going to play last week, but is hopefully available. That’s a bonus for us, with the way he has been performing.”
