Unbeaten home record goes as Greens remain at the bottom
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HIGHLAND lost their unbeaten home record as they slipped to a 27-0 defeat against Aberdeenshire — the victory seeing the visitors crowned Caledonia Regional League Division One champions.
The Greens went into the match with a strong squad, although they were minus captain Kevin Brown, Tam Magowan and Kenny Cameron.
A few positional changes saw Ewan Watson move to hooker, where he was man of the match, and Craig Little filling the stand-off role. In the forwards, the pack was bulked up with the return of several of Highland’s Fijian Contingent.
Aberdeenshire have only lost one game this season and Highland had been on the wrong end of a 90-point defeat in their previous league encounter.
But the home side started well, although the soon came under pressure in both the scrums and lineouts as the visitors slowly but surely gained the advantage.
Hopes of an upset at Canal Park were dashed as the loss of an unconverted try was further compounded when injury ended Jamie Strachan’s day in the front row.
Some strong running from Epi Vukicea gave Highland hope and they were only denied a try when the Aberdeenshire winger knocked the ball down with the home side virtually certain to score.
This led to him being sin-binned, but the Greens could not use their numerical advantage to good effect, conceding another unconverted try to go in at the break 10-0 behind.
Highland played into the wind in the second half and despite a brave effort, they conceded two more tries and a penalty as Aberdeenshire emerged victorious.
The result was not what the Greens were hoping for in their bid to stave off relegation, but they will take heart from a spirited showing, while under-18 player Rory Grant came off the bench and acquitted himself well on his senior bow.
Highland now face second place Caithness at home on Saturday and with Ellon still to visit Canal Park, wins from these two matches could well be enough to see them beat the drop.
