Head coach accepts ‘we got a lesson’ after setback for Greens
Ellon men’s 1st XV ran out comfortable 54-26 victors over Caithness at Millbank on Saturday.
The win propelled the north-east side into top spot in the North Conference of North Caley 1 and leaves the Greens still battling to avoid the prospect of what would be a first-ever relegation.
Already missing regulars Charlie Quinn, Cameron Ryder and Reece Coghill, they were also without skipper Cole Wilson and full-back Scott Webster.
The Greens competed well in most areas in the first half and could feel slightly hard done by to trail 21-13 at the interval.
A lively restart harvested a Marc Anderson penalty and a close-range try from replacement prop Mark Nicolson which levelled the scores at 21-21.
From then on, the wheels came off with Ellon scoring five tries against one in reply to complete a double over their hosts and become the first visitors in the league to prevail at Millbank.
After Ellon drew first blood with a converted try, Cameron Boyd’s men replied when flanker Duncan Mackay finished off a sequence of pick-and-goes. Anderson converted before briefly putting his side in front with a penalty.
The pendulum swung in favour of Ellon when they scored two converted tries before Anderson’s second penalty reduced the interval deficit to eight points.
It had very much the feel of “game on” when Anderson potted another penalty and Nicolson rumbled over to make it all square within 10 minutes of the resumption.
But the home effort took a major dip, while Ellon played with the intensity and zest of a side challenging for the title.
With Caithness falling off tackles and losing their defensive shape, Ellon turned the screw and scored five more touchdowns, sandwiched between a solitary unconverted effort from home hooker Duncan MacMillan.
Ellon try-scorers were number eight James Halmshaw (3), left-winger Aaron Hay (2), right-winger Kerr McCluskey (2) and replacement Archie Andrade.
Stand-off Chris Brown was on song with the boot, landing seven of his eight shots at goal.
Head coach Boyd was gutted to watch his side go AWOL for the latter part of the game having earlier gone toe-to-toe with the visitors.
“They are a very good team,” he said of Ellon. “They are young, fit, strong and aggressive and they took just about all their scoring opportunities.”
Boyd thought a turning point in the game was when full back Gary Mackay had to retire with suspected concussion after a try-saving goal-line tackle on Halmshaw early in the second half.
“Our pack just seemed to run out of steam early on,” he added. “We looked knackered and we got a lesson from them in needing to have an 80-minute mindset.
“Ellon played hard from the outset and kept their intensity throughout whereas ours dropped off.
“We failed to execute their game plan and to concede 54 points at Millbank is really disappointing. We’re going to have to be a lot better than that in our final two games here.”
One piece of good news for the Greens from Saturday was Aberdeenshire’s 57-19 thumping of North Police in Aberdeen.
That keeps the latter anchored in bottom position, nine points behind Caithness and 10 behind Ross Sutherland, though having played two games fewer than both of them.
The Greens entertain Aberdeenshire on February 22 before completing their campaign versus North Police at Millbank on April 5.
Caithness Seconds are in Caley North 3 action on Saturday when they travel to play Skye.