Caithness warm up for Championship Crown with win over Stags

After a 5 week break since their last league match Grangemouth were finally back in action last Saturday as they made the long trip north to Thurso to take on league leaders Caithness. The Stags made several changes due to injury and unavailability with Ross Christie on the wing, McNiff and Roach in the back row and the unlikely combination of Binnie and Deacons in the second row. Conditions were good and the home side had the advantage of the wind and slope in the first half. Grangemouth made a disasterous start and conceded a try after just 15 seconds. Straight from the kick off Caithness found a huge gap in the Stags defence and after a couple of simple passes the winger scampered in at the corner for an unconverted score. The Stags hit back immediately and were awarded a scrum penalty 30 metres out which was duly converted by Skelton. Grangemouth continued to look good with ball in hand and took the lead on 11 minutes. The forwards sole a lineout and Dempsey made a good break upfield. The home side were penalised at the breakdown and Skelton slotted his second penalty. As the game entered the second quarter Grangemouth were again guilty of failing to clear their lines and this allowed Caithness to pin the Stags inside their 22. Grangemouth seemed to have survived the initial attack but a knock on and the base of a scrum popped up nicely for the home scrum half to dive over near the posts for a converted score. The home side dominated the closing minutes of the half and increased their lead on 35 minutes. The forwards had a series of drives which sucked in the defenders to create a simple overlap for the fullback to run in for a converted score. Just on half time Caithess collected the bonus point score. From a scrum on the 2 the stand off crashed through a couple of tackles to score under the posts. HT Caithness 26 Stags 6

The second period started badly for the Stags. A break upfield was only halted by a high tackle and from the resultant tap penalty the tight head prop crashed over for the score. Grangemouth lost both flankers McNiff and Roach to facial lacerations with Clark and McNab having to switch to the back row. The Stags then enjoyed a spell of pressure inside the Caithness 22 with the home side giving away numerous penalties. As the game entered the final quarter a tap penalty saw Deacons stopped just short of the line before Hind picked up to score from close range. Skelton added the extras. The closing 10 minutes saw Grangemouth reduced to 14 when Mark Christie was given a yellow card for a late tackle and this allowed Caithness to take advantage with a couple of close range converted scores. With the final play of the game the Stags took a tap penalty and the ball was moved wide for Whitelaw to cut inside his man and score near the corner. Skelton was unable to add the conversion. FT Caithness 45 Stags 18

Caithnesss fully deserved the victory and will surely become league champions in the next few weeks. The Stags performance was rather disjointed and lacked the intensity and accuracy from earlier in the season. This probably reflects the stop/start nature of the season with so few games being played since New Year. This week Grangemouth are back at home against Strathmore ith KO 3pm.