The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Different Ba game as islanders target upset
A historic island sporting tradition could have a detrimental effect on Orkney’s chances of causing an upset in tomorrow’s home National 3 game against second-placed Newton Stewart.
Coach Gary Coltherd explained: “I’m pretty sure the lads will all have been involved in the traditional Kirkwall Ba Game over the festive period, on Christmas Day and again on New Year’s Day.
“It has the effect of making everybody unwell and sore, so they’ve not really had a rest over the break.
“It’s played with a ball, similar to a medicine ball and 300-plus men play in it.
“It’s between the Uppies and the Doonies and traditionally most, if not all, of the rugby team play in it.
“Playing in it, they are more likely to catch any bugs going about and they can also get squashed and pick up other injuries, so I definitely won’t say we’ve enjoyed a rest over the festive season.”
Looking ahead to the weekend’s game against title chasing Newton Stewart, Coltherd added: “We have home advantage but they are a well-organised team with a good defence so we will just have to try to break them down.
“Unfortunately, they have had two games since we last played a competitive match in the middle of December.
“Therefore we know it is going to be a tough ask as we will probably be off the pace a wee bit.
“You obviously want to win your home games but I think this will be one of our tougher ones, although we will be giving it our best shot.”
Coltherd is also facing the prospect of missing key men. He said: “We have quite a few players out injured, including Alistair Linklater, our tight-head prop, who has missed the last few games. Our stand off James Linklater is also unavailable, as is full back Andrew Linklater.
“We’re also a bit short in the second row and we have no scrum half as David Bruce is also missing so we certainly don’t have our troubles to seek this weekend.”