No end in sight to misery for Dundee High Rugby

There seems to be no end in sight as Dundee High Rugby’s miserable season continues to unfold.

A long way adrift at the bottom of Tennent’s National 1 with a solitary point to their name, things did not improve when Gala called at Mayfield, won comfortably and travelled back to the borders with a win bonus.

Ross Cooke put Gala on the board with a penalty, then converted his own try to make it Cooke 10 Dundee 0.

He then added to his tally by converting Fergus Johnstone’s first try and Dan Nicholson’s strike as half time approached, taking Gala into a 24-0 lead.

Dundee showed a bit of a flourish with a try by Ruiridh Hood converted by Paul Kerr, followed by a Kerr penalty, only for Johnstone to scamper in for his second to ensure the bonus.

Richie Tod made it a nap hand for the borderers as they ran out convincing winners by 36-10.

It was just the sort of start Kirkcaldy had wanted against Preston Lodge in their National 2 joust at Beveridge Park when Steve Milne went over off Greg Wallace’s pass for Craig Letham to convert with less than three minutes on the clock.

Stubborn PL defence prevented them from adding to that until the 34th minute, though, and it was Danny Jennings who breached the defence with Letham again converting to take Kirkcaldy in towards the break with a 14-0 lead.

PL had other ideas, and a converted try and penalty before half time made a four-point game.

A penalty after the restart created jitters around the ground with one point separating the sides.

Jack Pow was the creator and Rhys Bonner the finisher of the try which settled the nerves, and Letham’s conversion took the score to 21-13 and things looked a bit healthier.

However, it took a tremendous solo effort from skipper Josh Laird to clinch a try bonus point which had seemed unlikely against a stuffy PL outfit.

With a big win at Gordonians, GHK stay second in National 2 but Kirkcaldy trail them by just a single point in third spot going into the final match of the first half of the season.

There was very little in it a Hawthornden as Howe of Fife took a 10-3 lead into half-time thanks to tries from Fraser Allan and Rory Johnston to a Matt Smith penalty for Lasswade.

That was it for the Duffus Park men, though, as Lasswade ran in a couple of second-half tries from Ally Lamond and Dale Robertson with Smith converting both and adding a second penalty.

This was a bad one for Howe to lose since it allows Lasswade to leapfrog them into third spot in National 3.

They may well rue the fact that they left a few points on the park at Hawthornden which could possibly have taken them to joint top of National 3, but now they are in fourth spot behind Berwick, Greenock Wanderers and Lasswade.

North Inch was frozen, forcing the clash between Perthshire and Strathmore to be postponed.