Stretching Orkney to Borders

Orkney’s squad will be stretched to the limit for tomorrow’s National 3 gameagainst fourth-placed St Boswells in the Borders.

But the islanders are in no danger of being relegated and head coach Paul Livingstone is looking for another encouraging performance from the youngsters he has been forced to introduce due to lack of numbers after injuries to key players and a casualty list in double figures.

Livingstone said: “We have been badly hit by injuries over the last few weeks and I have 12 firstteam players injured.

“We only had 11 at training this week and three of those are unable to travel this weekend due to work commitments.

“I don’t even know what I have got in terms of numbers for the trip to St Boswells. I don’t think they can get promotion now, so perhaps they may have gone off the boil a wee bit after last Saturday’s 25-13 defeat at Highland.

“They have a very experienced squad and are very set- piece orientated, scrums and mauls. They want to slow everything right down and they do it very, very well. They’ve not got a lot of pace but they’re all former Hawick and Selkirk players who can’t get in the first team, so they’re no mugs.”

Reflecting on last weekend’s 29-12 home defeat by Glasgow Academicals, Livingstone added: “Lastweek was literally a game of two halves. We started very slowly and they scored two tries in the first 10 minutes, which sort of killed the game.

“We were playing into the wind in the second half and the boys were outstanding. They worked really hard and got a couple of tries and one conversion but the damage had been done in the opening 10 minutes.”

“I have a dozen first-team players injured”

thrilling an occasion than knockout rugby, so there’s a real feeling of excitement in camp. “We’ve taken some big scalps in this year’s competition and we’re confident in our ability to take another. “We’ve played some exceptional rugby to finish top...