Highland are ready to push for promotion into the Premiership as competitive rugby returns to Inverness for the first time in 18 months on Saturday.
Head coach Dave Carson admits the Canal Park club – now with three senior sides in action every weekend – learned from playing most of a debut term in National Division One after a run of promotions from the Caledonia divisions.
He reckons the group have taken heed from rare losses and, having trained when allowed after the pandemic, are ready for their home starter against Ayr.
🦅🏉💚❤️ 1st XV Fixtures Announced.
The 1st XV will want to hit the ground running having made great use of the COVID enforced break.
We start the Nat Lge Div 1 campaign with a home game against @OfficialAyrRFC on 4th Sept
See pic for 1st XV's full Nat Lge Div 1 fixture list. pic.twitter.com/Je6ZCucEJW— Highland Rugby Club 🦅 (@HighlandRFC) July 9, 2021
He said: “We have just got to believe in ourselves. We have shown that over the last six or seven years by coming up through the leagues. After every promotion, we’ve dipped our toes in and pushed on.
“Ultimately, we want to play Premiership rugby – that’s from the players, to club members, everyone here is pushing towards that.
“We learned a lot from the last season we played. We lost three games away from home, which we could have won had we been a wee bit more streetwise at that level. We’re certainly that now.
“We’ve said that if we can win our home games then we can really target away games. Everyone has come in 100 per cent eager to push that through.
“It was our first time in National Division One when play was stopped and we were sitting third behind Biggar and Heriots, so we were in the mix last March.”
Highland ready for Ayr starter
Although the lack of meaningful matches makes the first round of games a bit of an unknown quantity, Carson reckons their visitors Ayr, as a club, will be all the stronger for now being part of the semi-professional Super Six League.
He added: “I reckon the Super Six sides such as Ayr, Heriots and Boroughmuir will be stronger this season. Last season was their first together in the Super Six and they were just getting together, so they’ll be stronger now.
“We’ll take what’s in front of us. It’s our home game and we’ll be striving for a win.”
🦅🏉💚❤️ The ref has confirmed that the final score in today’s preseason friendly at Fraserburgh was:@FraserburghRFC 24@HighlandRFC 101
Thanks to Fraserburgh for the game and the hospitality. Hope you have a great season. 🏉💪 #thehighlandway pic.twitter.com/Jr7WtWODrs— Highland Rugby Club 🦅 (@HighlandRFC) August 28, 2021
Third team is further boost – Carson
Highland’s new third team had a sparkling run-out last weekend, romping to a 101-24 victory at Fraserburgh.
Having another full 15 in action this season is another fresh boost for Carson.
He said: “The whole place is buzzing ahead of the new season. Everyone is exciting after 18 months without a competitive game. Apart from a couple of lockdowns, the boys have trained right through and are eager to get going.
“The big thing for me is we now have three competitive 15s in three leagues, which is absolutely phenomenal. Everyone else seems to be losing players, whereas we have so many we now have our thirds in one of the lower Caley leagues, which is brilliant. Everyone will get games now.
“We were hitting over 50 players at training each week. This means everyone will play now. In the past, boys were missing out because we didn’t have a third team. To get three teams out is really good.”
Baird makes move to Guernsey
So, what has changed since Highland last took to the pitch for competitive action?
Iain Chisholm, the club’s development officer, has moved to Melrose, while Oscar Baird is the main mover from the playing side.
Carson said: “In the summer, we lost Oscar Baird, who played through the juniors and starred in the seniors as soon as he finished 18s. He’s been a regular first-team player since then.
“He has gone to play for Guernsey. He was looking to travel. Just before the lockdown, he was due to go to New Zealand and play for a season. Obviously, the pandemic stopped that from happening, so he wanted to go and play somewhere else and travel, so we wish him well.
“He’s been a great servant to us and he’ll do well there.”
Coach Carson is satisfied with the arrivals, who have been training with the squad for some time now and are fully ready to show what they can do.
He added: “Owen MacDonald, a number eight, back row from Oban, has looked really good in pre-season. Ben Morris, who is originally from Elgin, went to Bath and played for Bath Uni and Bath, comes in and plays in the backs, while we’ve had a number of army boys down from Fort George.
“We’ll speak about these players as the season progresses, but one of the centres is Junior Junior, known as JJ. There are four of five from the seconds who have come in who haven’t played for us before, so it’s looking promising.”
Premiership tests were valuable
Warm-up tests against top-flight opponents has sharpened Highland ahead of their Ayr opener.
Carson said: “We’ve had two tough pre-season games away to Edinburgh Accies and a thrilling, physical encounter at home to Aberdeen Grammar. We were really pleased with both games.
“Although we lost in Edinburgh, we played well, while in the Grammar game, it was tough, but we broke away in the last 20 minutes to win it.
Off set piece line out, Highland exchange passes in the center ending up with Junior Waqanibau crashing over just to the right of the posts.
Scotty Fraser converts as the last play of the game.
Final score at Canal Park:
Highland 26-10 @ABDNRugby pic.twitter.com/QcY8869kYA— Highland Rugby Club 🦅 (@HighlandRFC) August 21, 2021
“The pre-season has been hard, not just out for a run and it’s got everyone used to playing again. It’s about getting the units playing again. Training has been buzzing this week and everyone will be keen to get a game for the first 15.”
After hosting Ayr, Highland are away to Kelso on September 11 before Heriot’s Blues come calling seven days later.
