Shire flying high for Orkney tussle
Captain Miller fired up for Kirkwall league match
Ryan Miller is hoping the sky is the limit for Perthshire as they prepare to jet off for a league fixture with Orkney.
The Eagles’ captain will join his team-mates at Edinburgh Airport on Saturday morning for an early flight to Island capital Kirkwall.
It’s a fixture Shire have become used to in recent seasons but a number of the squad’s younger members will be experiencing the trip for the first time.
While Miller is aware that this weekend’s hosts always tend to be stronger on home soil, he wants to be the one celebrating on the plane back to the mainland.
Shire sit one place and one point above Orkney heading into the match.
“It’s one of the games we always look forward to in the calendar,” Miller said ahead of the Tennent’s National League Division 3 tussle.
“You look out for the fixture first to see when you are going there and whether it’s in the autumn or in the middle of winter.
“The last two years have been fairly close games between the teams where we’ve been winning our home games and they have been winning up there.
“So we’re looking to change that on Saturday. It’s a long journey home on the back of a defeat.
“We’ll look to get up there, put in a strong performance and come away with the win.
“We’re flying up Saturday morning for a 12pm kick-off. We’ll then fly back and will be in Perth by about 6 or 7pm.
“It’s not too bad and some other games, like Newton Stewart, are probably longer days.
“There will be a couple in the squad who have not done this trip before and it does take some getting used to with the travel arrangements.
“And then you need to get ready for the game. It’s usually a tough encounter and they will be ready for us.
“Some of the older and more experienced guys need to get that into the younger ones so we can hit the ground running and start the game well.
“Orkney have got a core of guys who don’t travel to away games every week but are available for the home games.
“With it being a full day of travel, I’d imagine we will be one or two down. Some of the guys are maybe working Saturday morning.
“It’s usually a combination of Orkney being strong at home and other teams going up missing out on a full team.
“When they get on the front foot in front of their home crowd, they are hard to stop.”
Miller has been pleased with Shire’s home form this season but he wants more points on the road.
He said: “We’ve played some decent rugby and have come away with a few wins.
“When you look at our home record, we’ve only lost one at home which was against the team currently top of the league.
“From a home point of view we’ve played really well and we want to continue that in the second half of the season.
“But away from home it’s been a real mixed bag.
“We’ve had two or three good performances. We went to Newton Stewart with only 15 guys but put in an unbelievable shift that day, just coming up short.
“We played the last 20 minutes with 13 players on the pitch which was tough going.
“My minimum target for the second half of the season is to win at least another five games.
“Some of the teams we have played away, we’re more than capable of beating them at the North Inch.” Skipper Ryan Miller