For every away match the players from Caithness leave on Friday evening and stay in Perth before travelling on the Saturday morning to play a game. This can lead to a weakened team travelling away due to such a punishing schedule. This weekend seems to have been one of those games as this Caithness side were weaker than the one Berwick beat earlier in the season. Credit though must go to the Berwick players who finished off their home games in style to keep their promotion push on track.

The first score came within the first five minutes. A poor Caithness kick was returned with some interest and Paul Pringle’s chase forced a Berwick scrum. After a reset scrum Berwick Number 8 Colin Young picked up from the base of the scrum and as he moved forward the defence was sucked in to open up space which Berwick winger Jack Webster exploited clinically to score. Roy McFarlane kicked a great conversion which sailed straight through the middle of the posts. The Berwick supporters didn’t have long to wait for the next score. The Berwick pack won the ball and McFarlane ran a great angle entering the line at pace which split open the Caithness defence. McFarlane drew the cover and released Gareth Hill who outstripped the cover to claim the try under the posts. With a simple conversion added Berwick were 14-0 up within the first 10 minutes.

Caithness roused themselves from the Berwick onslaught and started to work the ball through the forwards with some “pick and go” drives. Berwick were using the boot to great effect and both Matthew McCreath and Neil Graham made some great gains by clever cross field kicks. After a knock on Berwick gained a scrum near the half way line which was comfortably won allowing the Berwick backs to make a break with Matthew Hackett cutting through on a clever angle and after timing his pass Pringle juggled the ball and set off for the try line. The Caithness cover caught up with him near the line but the tap tackle meant he was able to regain his feet to get over the try line to gain Berwick’s third try. The conversion was missed from a difficult angle. Caithness again fought back and this time forced Berwick into giving away penalties. From one such infringement the Caithness Fly Half Liam Brims kicked the points. Brims caught the eye and as a young player he showed great potential with a very calm and assured performance. Berwick were then forced into a change with Michael Brennan coming on for Jack Webster after a nasty clash of heads in the build up to Berwick’s next score. As the Blacks launched another attack Webster kicked the ball ahead and as he set off to give chase the covering player came in and got it wrong resulting in the collision. Brennan replaced Webster as a precaution and went on to have a fine game both in attack and in defence. Meanwhile whilst Webster was receiving attention play continued on with Hill claiming his second try of the game and his fifth against Caithness in the 2 games when he collected a difficult high ball before going over just inside the touch line. It was no surprise that the conversion was missed from out wide. Hill’s try also secured a try bonus point for scoring 4 tries in the game and all this before half time!

Caithness is a proud rugby club and for the rest of the half they took control of the game without ever threatening the Berwick try line. The half time break brought brief respite for the visitors but any half time team talk can’t prepare for a wicked bounce of the ball. Berwick’s Matthew McCreath restarted the second half and his kick bounced perfectly into the arms of David Gilchrist who collected the ball at full pace before passing to Colin Young who took the ball in his stride to power over for the touchdown. This extended Berwick’s lead to 29-3 and effectively killed the game off. Complacency then crept into Berwick’s play and Caithness regrouped yet again to launch a series of drives which tested the Berwick defence. Eventually the visitors’ efforts were rewarded as they scored a try by drawing in the defence and then springing the ball out wide for the score. Liam Brims calmly added the conversion to reduce Berwick’s lead to 29-10. The Blacks then started to play less as a team and more as individuals and it wasn’t until the last ten minutes that Berwick added to the try count when Neil Graham capped his Man of the Match display by straightening the attacking line with an incisive break to give Gareth Black the chance to use his strength to bundle over for the try. McCreath added the conversion to finish the scoring 34-10. The remainder of the game saw Caithness continuing to compete and they never gave up right to the end.

To use a cliché this was a “game of two halves”. In the first half Berwick played well as a team dominating the scrums and playing for each other. This team effort and willingness to work for each other created the space for tries to be scored. The second half saw Berwick fall off the pace and as a result allowed Caithness to fight back. Head Coach Lawrence Patton commented after the game “I was very frustrated at our second half performance. After watching the first half when a lot of the things we have been working on at training came off I was pleased. However in the second half we lost our shape and started to lose our structure and as a result we were less effective. All credit goes to Caithness for playing right to the end, teams with less spirit would have folded after we blasted off at the start but they didn’t at all.” The Blacks now face 5 away games starting with a trip to Newton Stewart which, following a request to the SRU from both clubs will be a 3pm kick off. However having claimed the maximum five points they are still second in the league and are on track for promotion.