Ross Sutherland meet National Bowl champions in first round
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ROSS Sutherland are using pre-season to prepare for revenge on National Bowl champions Aberdeenshire after the two teams were drawn together in the first round.
The Stags who won the competition in 2018, were knocked out in the regional semi- final 22-15 by Aberdeenshire who went on to win the competition at Murrayfield.
The two teams will meet for their first competitive game of the season on Saturday, September 7 at Woodside.
Before that the Stags will go on a north tour to face Orkney, Caithness and Stornoway. Mann said winning the Bowl in 2018 was one of the club’s proudest moments and they are determined to make an impact in the competition again.
“The 2019 winners are taking on the 2018 winners so there should be a good bit of fun there,” he said.
“At training we are going to start looking at building up to it.
“Leading up to the Orkney friendly we will be just looking at attack in training.
“After that we will look at what our defensive frailties may be. We will look to progress for that first bowl match.
Their friendlies are
against Orkney in Kirkwall next Saturday, Caithness in Golspie on Saturday, August 24 and Stornoway in Ullapool on Saturday, August 31.
With all three teams playing in different divisions to Ross Sutherland, Mann believes these matches will produce different styles of rugby ahead of the National Bowl game.
“I wanted to do a northern tour during pre-season as it appears every other week we are off to Aberdeen.
“We will be taking on a National Three side in Caithness along with a Caledonia One team against Orkney and a Caledonia Three team against Stornoway.
“So I am looking for three different styles of games so we can give ourselves good tests.”
