Dundee smashed by formidable Jericevich

Things were looking pretty good for Dundee at half-time at Braidholm in their BT National 1 clash with GHA.

They had taken on the Glasgow outfit and got themselves into a 20-0 lead thanks to tries from Colin Strachan, Ryan Milne and Isoa Matacagi, with Ewan Fox landing a penalty and conversion.

All they had to do was hold their nerve but they reckoned without the one-man wrecking ball that was Peter Jericevich.

The GHA scrum-half ran in two tries, converted both his and one of Andy Spowart’s two as well as sticking over a penalty to grab 19 points and, with the visitors unable to reply, demolish any hopes Dundee had of taking a point of any description back to Mayfield as they rued the 29-20 final scoreline.

That leaves Dundee in mid-table on 20 points, well away from the danger zone but equally well away from the promotion challengers Falkirk, Edinburgh Accies, Marr and Jed who range from 30 to the 37 points mark.

Sadly much more closely acquainted with the nether regions of BT National 1 are Howe of Fife who, for the umpteenth time this season, can look at a second half when the match got away from them, this time at Inverleith against Stewart’s Melville.

Howe were well in the game at the break with a try by Shaun Gray converted by Cameron Ellison, who also goaled a couple of penalties, keeping them close at 17-13 with Stew/Mel having put in a try each by Alex Rappestad and wing James Ferguson, with Mike Hanning converting both and slotting the penalty which separated the sides at the break.

Ferguson went over for his second try after half time and although it wasn’t converted it was, at 22-13, enough to deny Howe what would have been the small compensation of a losing bonus.

It was a convincing win for Biggar at Hartreemill where they saw off Kirkcaldy by 33-22, a defeat that leaves the Fifers in ninth spot in BT National 2.

Perthshire are becoming too familiar with the relegation area of BT National 3. After a 56-14 defeat at the hands of RHC at Barnton in Edinburgh, they saw their opponents move away from the drop zone at their expense.

For the neutral, there was a certain symmetry in the scoring, 27-7 at half-time, 56-14 in the end and with Ryan Miller in the first half and Ian Williams in the second notching tries for Perthshire, and Dom O’Connor converting both, it was tidy but left them well in the wake of RHC on the day.