Form book won’t count in High clash

Form – who needs it? The last time Dundee High Rugby and Highland clashed in Tennent’s National 1, Highland hammered them 66-17 in Inverness but that goes out of the window when you reckon that Dundee had been thumped at home by Cartha but beat them in Glasgow last week.

That came at a huge cost to Dundee though, with four bad injuries, two of which could be season-ending to add to their already eye-watering list of casualties.

In the five Saturdays of a soaking, dreich February, Highland had only one game but they belied their rustiness with an impressive 16-10 win over Gala at Netherdale.

Highland are third in the table and are still in with a great chance of a promotion spot from second so it comes down to a clash of Highland’s ambition and already relegated Dundee’s pride.

With a home defeat to Newton Stewart followed by last week’s 24-5 shocker at New Anniesland – Kirkcaldy only put points on the board with the final play of the game – the Beveridge Park men have really put themselves on the back foot in the National 2 promotion stakes.

They could drop further back after Peebles pitch up at Beveridge Park today, the men from the Gytes having quietly eased up into third spot and a win could see them go second if fourth-placed GHK beat Dumfries.

A fortnight ago Strathmore beat Howe of Fife and due to the mysteries of rescheduling which have been necessary after the spate of postponements since the turn of the year, the two meet again at Duffus Park.

Strathmore didn’t have a game last week but for Howe it was a chance to get back on track and they took it with both hands with a bonus point win at Murrayfield Wanderers.

With second in National 3 Lasswade heading for fourthplaced Ardrossan, a win for Howe could bounce them into fourth spot setting up a run-in just as nail-biting as that in National 2.

Due to a postponement backlog equalled only by Strathmore leaving eight matches to be played, Perthshire could still quite easily move from second bottom of National 3 to a place above Caithness and even today’s visitors to North Inch, Murrayfield Wanderers.

Shire picked up two points when they faced Wanderers in Edinburgh at the beginning of February, going down 36-31.