Highland skipper Stuart MacDonald Butler is hoping for double cause to celebrate following his engagement to partner, Rebecca.
MacDonald Butler became engaged shortly before a recent cruise holiday around Spain, France and Italy, when the number eight was sidelined with a hamstring injury.
Having since returned to contention for the Inverness outfit, MacDonald Butler is intent on helping Highland’s charge for a third successive promotion when they make the trip to National 1 leaders Biggar tomorrow.
MacDonald Butler said: “I got engaged just before I went on holiday. I had pulled my hamstring the week before and then I went off on a cruise holiday with a group of friends, so in hindsight it worked out all right timing-wise. The squad did fantastically well over that period, they put in some great performances.
“The only one we lost was the Melrose game, and I don’t even think we were that disappointed with it. We played really well and on the day I think we were just beaten by a better team.
“We put in an excellent performance in my first game back against Stirling, and then capped it off last weekend with quite a considerable score against a good Cartha Queen’s Park side.
“I said after the game it was just unfortunate they came up against the best performance we had put in so far this season.”
Highland’s 57-21 home win over Cartha Queen’s Park saw Davie Carson’s men move to within five points of tomorrow’s opponents, who still have a game in hand.
With both sides having been promoted from National 2 last term, MacDonald Butler is well aware of what to expect this weekend.
He added: “Confidence is high in the team, but we have got a lot of respect for Biggar.
“We came up with them last season and they have had a fantastic record this season. They have only lost one game and that was to us at the start of the season.
“While we are confident, we know we have to put in probably our best performance to get a win down there.
“They are quite similar to us in that they are a very fit side who will put in an 80-minute performance.
“They are a physical side – a classic Borders team in that sense in that they don’t go down easily.
“They take a lot of pride in their defence, they have conceded just under 150 points all season which is head and shoulders above a lot of the other teams in the league.
“I think we will have to be patient to try and wear them down.”
Highland have taken the step up to National 1 in their stride, winning all but three of their 12 matches so far this term.
MacDonald Butler has hailed the squad effort from Carson’s men, and he added: “In the week leading up to the games we do our homework and research on what we feel any team is going to perform like.
“But you don’t know what the real thing is going to be like until they are here.
“The boys have been able to adapt to different styles of attack and defence, and demonstrate the quality we have right across the whole squad.
“It’s not just the starting 15, we have had so many boys coming through to represent us in the first team.
“That’s credit to the way the Raptors, our seconds team, have been playing.”