Aberdeen Grammar are set to play the first of two home games before the festive break tomorrow with Newton Stewart the visitors to Rubislaw as the hosts look to start manoeuvring away from the bottom of the National Two table.
Grammar saw last week’s trip to Lasswade beaten by the cold snap, but before that they had lost five games in a row – conceding 201 points in the process – to leave them 10th out of 10 in the standings.
It is not quite panic stations yet, they are just four points behind Berwick with seven matches left and just one goes down.
But they could do with getting points on the board this weekend against third-placed Newton Stewart or on December 16 versus Kirkcaldy to give them some momentum heading into 2024.
Grammar were relegated from the Premiership in 2021-22 and from National One in 2022-23 and the club are desperate to avoid a third demotion in a row.
“We are hoping to beat the weather and we look forward to welcoming Newton Stewart,” Aberdeen Grammar head coach Eric Strachan said.
“The fixture earlier in the season was a well contested match (Newton Stewart just edging it 27-22) and we expect the same again versus a team that likes to play expansive rugby.
“We will welcome back centre Donovan Zietsman for this one after a number of weeks out with injury. Seamus Gilmartin returns in the second-row and Sam Knudson will also add his rugby nouse to the backline.
“A number of other players will be returning from injury and work commitments over the next few weeks and we are looking forward to the run in.”
Fifth-placed Gordonians lost to Newton Stewart last time out a fortnight ago and want to bounce back at home to sixth placed Stirling County.
“It was disappointing that last week’s game at Stewart’s Melville was off as the boys were keen to put the performance against Newton Stewart behind them,” head coach Ryan Morrice explained.
“We’ve trained indoors this week (at Aberdeen Sports Village), so we have managed to do a controlled level of contact and conditioning to keep the boys ticking over.
“For this match we welcome back Ross Findlay (injury) and Sam Ryan (offshore) to the squad and they’ll add some experience to a very youthful backline. The pack is fairly settled and we don’t see any changes up front.”
Highland head to Melrose
In National One, Highland are set to play their final competitive match of the year down at Melrose.
The match at The Greenyards will be fourth versus second and an away win would round off an impressive 2023-24 so far for the Inverness men.
Orkney will be looking to make it 11 wins from 11 in National Three at Pickaquoy against Boroughmuir.
The hosts are second in the table and Boroughmuir fifth and Alan Brown, a member of the Orkney coaching panel, said: “We felt like we’d prepped really well for Preston Lodge (the postponed game last week), so we have tried to bring this into the Boroughmuir game and keep the momentum going.
“When we played them away, we were missing a few key players and we just scraped a win with the last kick of the game ((21-20 in Edinburgh in September).
“We have those players back for this home fixture so we’re excited to get stuck in and aim to keep our unbeaten run going.
“However, we aren’t being complacent and realise Boroughmuir will be coming up to end that run.”
Caledonia One North Conference leaders Aberdeenshire are on the road to seventh placed Caithness.
It is a big weekend in the women’s Premiership for bottom side Garioch as they host second-bottom Stewartry in their penultimate regular season fixture on Saturday.
Garioch head coach Dave Duguid said: “It is a huge game for us and one we are really looking forward to, but we are trying not to put too much pressure on ourselves.
“We have 29 players available, so team selection is extremely difficult this week and last night’s training (Thursday) was set to determine a lot of selections.”
