Orkney fitness may be factor at West of Scotland

Orkney vice-president Garry Coltherd is taking heart from his side’s close call against National 3 opponents West of Scotland ahead of the sides meeting again tomorrow.

The islanders have racked up three victories on the bounce, although they saw last weekend’s trip to Gordonians called off due to travel issues.

Orkney opened their league campaign at home to tomorrow’s opponents but squandered 31-22 and then 34-29 leads before eventually going down 36-34 against the Milngavie outfit.

Coltherd, who has a major doubt over tighthead prop Alistair Linklater due to a shoulder injury, said: “After the top three, anybody else could be lying in fourth aside from a couple of teams at the bottom.

“It has been shown that anybody can beat anybody.

“West of Scotland is a long journey for us and a tough game – they are sitting third in the league.

“We are on a good run though. We played West of Scotland at the start of the season and we had a big lead on them.

“We scored plenty points against them but we cannot let them score so many again. Our fitness has improved since then, so hopefully we can give them a good game.”

Caithness will have to pull out all the stops if they are to beat National 3 leaders Newton Stewart at Millbank this weekend.

Skipper and number 10 Marc Anderson said: “Newton Stewart have only conceded 68 points all season, having won 10 and lost only one from 11 starts so far so we know we will be up against it.

“They probably don’t have the biggest of packs but they are a really well-organised side and they beat us 40-16 down there at the end of September.

“We only have a couple of guys out this weekend so we will be more or less at full strength.

“Obviously we would like to turn our Milbank ground into a bit of a fortress.

“It’s hard enough anyway for opposing teams making the long journey up here.

“We know that as we are having to do the travelling every other week so hopefully we can capitalise on that.

“We feel we have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain against Newton Stewart this weekend.

“All of the pressure is on them.”