Ross Sutherland coach David Gill not concerned about prospect of rustiness ahead of Aberdeenshire's visit to Invergordon in Caledonia North Two
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Ross Sutherland are not overly concerned that a month-long lay-off will affect them ahead of Aberdeenshire’s trip to Invergordon this weekend.
There was always planned to be three free weekends in November to tie in with the Autumn internationals, but the Stags also saw their last match before the break, against Highlands 2nds, called off because of positive Covid cases.
Aberdeenshire, meanwhile, played two weeks more recently than Ross Sutherland after rescheduling a match that had been postponed earlier in the campaign for the first designated “free” week.
Coach David Gill, though, is not too worried about the possibility that his side will be rusty by the time kick off comes around on Saturday afternoon.
“Everyone is in the same boat,” he insisted.
“With Covid and everything else going against us, it’s hard for everyone.
“We’re confident in what we’re doing, and we’re confident in the squad that we’ve got. It’s a young, enthusiastic squad who are keen to run and keen to play. They’re just keen to get back to a bit of normality on a Saturday as well.
“It’s great when you’ve got the distraction of so much fantastic rugby on the telly, but it will be good to get back out there playing.”
That is the overriding feeling in Invergordon now – that everyone is just keen to get back playing.
It has not been a holiday for the players in the meantime though, as Gill says plenty of hard work has been put in on the training ground.
“We’ve been carrying on with team related stuff on a Tuesday night at our headquarters in Invergordon, and then on a Thursday we’ve been training on the Astro at Tain doing conditioning games and skills,” he said.
“We’ve kept the boys working that way to keep the motors running at the moment and try and keep the positivity going. It will be tough, but it will be great to be back. It becomes a very disjointed season when you’ve got such a long break.
“The last thing you want to see is bodies disappearing, so hopefully we will be able to continue where we were with reducing errors and getting a bit of positivity going.”
