Dundee High look to kick on against Watsonians

Dundee High Rugby’s Tennent’s National 1 clash with Watsonians at Myreside could be a tasty one.

The Edinburgh side were demolished in the cup by Highland and last week went down to Ayr by 48-24, so with Dundee having narrowly failed to put Ayr out of the cup before going down to a powerful Heriots outfit last week, there is a chance for Dundee to open their league account.

“We did pretty well against Ayr until they kicked a late penalty,” said Dundee coach Colin Sangster.

“But we weren’t really in the game against Heriots in the first half and went 33-0 down.

“We had a much better second half and we will have to knuckle down if we don’t want to find ourselves in that sort of situation.

“We have to play for the full 80, protect our ball and take it to them if we want to get a result.”

A penalty was the difference between the sides at Beveridge Park last week which gave Dumfries Saints the win over Kirkcaldy and they go to Inverleith tomorrow to face a Stewarts Melville side which got the better of Falkirk by the same margin.

Although they were unable to repeat the try-fest of their opener in the cup when they beat Newton Stewart 80-19, Kirkcaldy still scored try for try with Dumfries and despite having to travel to the capital, they could overturn home advantage.

It is about eight seasons since the two last met in the league in a match which ended with a simple Kirkcaldy conversion in front of the posts to win the game agonisingly sliding wide. The kicker? Current Kirkcaldy coach Quinten Sanft.

It will be the first home game for Strathmore in their Tennent’s National 3 campaign after a disappointing trip to Lasswade last week and with Hillhead Jordanhill heading for Inchmacoble Park on the back of a 32-15 home win over Murrayfield Wanderers in their opener, it could be another tough one.

The physicality of Berwick was too much for Howe of Fife when they travelled to Hawthornden last week and West of Scotland dumped Carrick at home in their league opener, so it will be a real challenge for the Duffus Park men despite home advantage.

Greenock Wanderers brought a strong squad to North Inch last week and travelled back to Fort Matilda with a 25-19 win, so a trip to the Ayrshire coast to face Ardrossan Accies could be fraught with danger for Perthshire.

Ardrossan made the long trek to Caithness to kick off their league season, picked up a 27-22 win and have proven to be hard to beat at Memorial Field.

Last season, Perthshire lost twice, 45-3 at Ardrossan then 29-13 in the rematch, with the league ending with Ardrossan in third spot and Perthshire in eighth.