Highland outside centre Rob Eatough is determined to maintain his outstanding start with the Inverness side in tomorrow’s trip to National 2 leaders Biggar.
Eatough has scored back-to-back hat-tricks in his first two games against Whitecraigs and Peebles since joining Davie Carson’s men in the summer, helping the newly-promoted Canal Park side move to within three points of today’s opponents at the summit.
Eatough, who is from Birmingham, is brimming with confidence ahead of tomorrow’s top of the table encounter, and he said: “It has been a good start for me, I have been quite fortunate.
“I missed the start of the season because I was doing a cycle from John o’Groats to Land’s End. I finished that, then had my first game a couple of weeks ago in our 47-15 win away to Whitecraigs.
“I managed to get over for a few there, and then carried on in the 22-15 win over Peebles last week. I didn’t think I actually played that well, but getting over for a few tries managed to put a gloss on an otherwise fairly average performance.
“They might be marking me this weekend but we might have Rupeni Rokoduguni coming in to play this weekend, which will be another attacking threat for us.”
Eatough most recently played for Birmingham-based club Bournville, however has not featured in recent seasons during his training to be a doctor.
Having been posted to work as a doctor at the RAF Kinloss medical centre in June, ahead of the start of his training as a GP in Elgin in January, the 31-year-old is hoping to make the most of his spell with Highland, adding: “My wife is doing GP training here as well so we are around for the next three years.
“Highland have been really welcoming. I’m enjoying it so far, so the plan for the next three years is to stick around with them.
“Getting us into the league above this would be the dream, but it’s a tricky league.”
Eatough has been impressed by the standard in National 2 so far, and he added: “It seems like there are no easy games in this league and this sounds like it’s going to be another big match.
“They will probably be favourites, being top of the league and at home, we will try and keep the game as loose and high scoring as possible which I think will suit us.
“There’s a good vibe at the club, we are still getting about 50 people down to training at this stage of the season which is more than I have ever had at a club I’ve previously played for.”