Highland require power play

Highland head coach Dave Carson wants resilience from his players as they try to spring back from a first league defeat in nearly two years against RHC in National 3 tomorrow. Last weekend’s 22-21 defeat at Lasswade was the Inverness club’s first loss in the league since they were beaten 33-8 by Orkney in Caledonia 1 in November 2014. Highland remain unbeaten at Canal Park since March 2013, however, and Carson expects his players to go all out to defend the record against the Edinburgh outfit. He said: “There will be a massive reaction. Some of the players had not lost a game for us before. “We are all proud of the home record and the players won’t want to relinquish that having lost last week. “We were 21-10 up with 10 minutes to go and we should have seen it out. “We have not turned into a bad side, we just didn’t perform in the last 15 minutes.” Fourth-placed Highland remain four points adrift of leaders Dumfries Saints, however Carson reckons last week’s loss was a timely warning of the step up his side must deal with following promotion from Caledonia 1. He added: “We need to be able to compete with an 80-minute performance, we can’t go to sleep late on in the game. “Last season we could get into a winning position and we would be able to cruise through the rest of the game. “There was maybe a lack of experience that showed, as we have not been in that situation before. “It’s something we’ll need to learn, though, as we’re good enough to win games away from home.” Highland will be without Darren MacLeod (hamstring) and Oscar Baird (knee).

“There will be a reaction – some players had not lost a game for us before”