Coach Brian Irvine and his troops did what they promised and secured a good win to kick-off 2007 and the first win over Glasgow Accies for a number of seasons.

The weather for once conspired to leave the main pitch at Canal Park in very good condition for a game so early in January and the teams only had a brisk breeze in the first quarter and the low sun (which was revealed every so often from behind the clouds in the Great Glen) to cause any concern.

Highland kicked-off with the sun and the breeze behind them and made early use of both along with some fine brisk attacks to pin Accies back inside their own half. The home side looked very bright from the off and established a pattern that ran throughout the match. They clearly seemed to have the edge over a stuffy Accies side playing at lot of the match in the Accies half, but never realised the scores promised with some over elaborate play at times and too much drift in the running of the backs. The visitors also showed some grit in defence with the result being that Highland never really made the game safe until the end as far the score was concerned.

The early Highland pressure saw Accies giving away several penalties with one eventually coming into kicking range and Morris Dillon saw the home side take the lead 3-0 at eight minutes. Highland kept up the momentum and Accies at times looked like caving in as some niggle crept in via the actions of their number five. He got the home support fired up in anger with some actions where he was lucky not to be sent off, but he was eventually collared by the referee who sin-binned him on seventeen minutes.

Highland hadn’t slackened their efforts and the man advantage saw them grab a nice try – after some good driving from the pack - by Scott MacKenzie converted by Morris Dillon for Highland to lead 10-0 to end the first quarter. The home support were looking for their side to keep up the pressure although the fourteen man Accies had other ideas. It may seem that the earlier antics of their number five caused more harm than help as Accies suddenly looked more focused and more of a team. They regrouped and started coming back at Highland who for their part took for granted that had unlocked the Accies defence and slackened off their grip on the match.

The Glasgow side were now seeing some action in the Highland half and the home side were having to defend with Scott MacKenzie showing up a lot in some crunching tackles that complimented his earlier attacking play. With the breeze now faded away it was also less easy to kick long from defence and easier for Accies to make ground. With Accies growing in confidence they were able to force over a try in the left corner from their nippy number eleven and lucky for Highland the very difficult conversion was narrowly missed for the lead to be cut to 10-5 at twenty-six minutes.

Then unfortunately for Accies their number five was returned to play and their period of pressure ended and Highland also woke up to the danger and began easing their way back into the Accies half. Another feature of Highland’s edge on the day was a much improved lineout that saw secure takes on their own put-in and snatching or disrupting much of Accies. Part of this was good throws by Kevin Brown, but also some excellent take by Finlay MacRae and Ali MacKay – Ali had a very good match and has certainly improved steadily as the season has progressed.

As mentioned earlier the hallmark of the game was Highland’s inability to round off pressure with a score and this was somewhat highlighted as the second quarter progressed. It was frustrating to watch as the home side couldn’t quite subdue their visitors. A couple of clear chances were missed, the first a disallowed try in the corner – first given then ruled out for the scorer, Euan Ferguson, as being in touch having hit the corner flag. The second was a penalty kick missed by Morris Dillon. Some more pressure saw out the half for it to end, still at 10-5.

The second-half saw both sides sparring equally yet at times Highland had to look urgently to their defence if Accies got the ball out to either of their wingers who always seemed to need that extra tackle to be thwarted. On attack Highland seemed to have run out of ideas and weren’t putting as much pressure on the Accies line. This was part caused by the departure of the impressive Ali MacKay with a groin strain, replaced by Andrew Beattie who certainly made an impact in the last quarter. The change here ended the frustrating third quarter with neither side looking like scoring but it was uncomfortable viewing with such a narrow lead.

In the last quarter some more changes came about. Craig Little came on as a replacement for Gareth High at scum-half and although Craig provided good service he’s not yet match fit after his return from his year away in Australia, New Zealand and the Far East and probably wasn’t as involved as he’d like. Another was positional with Euan Mackintosh coming in off the wing to Stand-off with his brother shifting to inside centre and Dok going out to the wing. This produced an electrifying effect as this produced some new moves at stand-off and some crisper (and more) passing in the centre that saw the whole back line suddenly click.

This came as a shock for Accies as they now spent the remainder of the match on the back foot and defending, the pattern at the start of the match resumed. It was perhaps to late for Highland to produce tries, but their pressure produced more Accies penalties many of which saw Highland kicking for position although one was kicked by Morris Dillon to place Highland in a 13-5 lead that meant Accies needed two scores to get back in the game and had lost the loss bonus point.

This is how the match ended and it was a win that Highland very much deserved although they made it more difficult for themselves than it should have been. The forwards had a far better game with the better balanced pack and it was more of a unit that saw solid scrums and very good line-outs. They also saw better running in attack and some aggressive tackling. The loss of Ali MacKay for next weekend’s match at Stewartry will be felt. The backs certainly had some good play, solid in defence and some good running in attack. They do need to sort out positional selections and stop the drift when running.

A good win all the same and as ever enthusiastic Coach Brian Irvine will be making the tweaks at training ready for the long trip away to Stewartry next weekend.

This article was posted on 7-Jan-2007, 19:58 by Hugh Barrow.