Rugby – Highland rest up for a big Gala day
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Head coach Dave Carson will use a free weekend to nurse wounds and refresh legs while keeping his squad ticking over for a hugely important league clash with Gala the following weekend.
Highland journey to play the borders outfit in a fourth against fifth place showdown on February 18.
With the leading pack of three above them racing away over the horizon in the National League One title race, the battle for fourth place – with Gala currently a solitary point ahead of Carson’s team – is the only focus.
“We’ll just assess everyone this week in terms of any injuries and the players who need it will have quite a light recovery week,” head coach Carson said.
“Others, who haven’t played so much will be put through their paces, but we’ve been pretty full-on since the turn of the year, so the bit of breathing space will do them good.”
Highland pulled off a fine 14-10 home victory over Gala in October’s tie at Canal Park. While the Maroons, under Fraser Thomson and Euan Dods, can be unpredictable they have turned in some impressive performance of late.
At the weekend, they only exited the Scottish Cup narrowly, by 26-23, to Premiership Glasgow Hawks just a week after defeating league Leaders Kelso 36-31 away from home.
“Gala were playing really well and then had that massive dip for about four weeks, for whatever reason,” Carson reflected. “They’ve certainly come back since then, beating Kelso at their ground and only losing to Glasgow Hawks by a single penalty.
“They are really flying just now so we are going to have to be at the very top of our game to get a result down there.
“That’s something we’re quite capable of doing on our day.
“Our aim is to get up above Gala into fourth and see what happens after that. It is a big game for both clubs.”
