Dundee High go down – but not without a fight

A late burst of scoring ensured that Dundee High Rugby were not going to make it third time lucky in their Tennent’s National 1 clash with Boroughmuir at Dalnacraig, yet again facing the club side from a team playing in last season’s Premiership.

They were still well in the game at half-time with two penalties from Paul Kerr taking the score to 17-6 at the break and although Boroughmuir scored the first try of the second half, Dundee replied with a couple of tries from Danny McGinn and Finlay Jacobs, both converted by Kerr.

The latter stages saw the visitors up their game, and from being under pressure with Dundee having closed the gap to 24-20, two converted tries for Boroughmuir along with a controversial earlier score took them out of sight with a final scoreline of 38-20.

It was perhaps an unfair reflection of how close Dundee had come to putting their first league win on the board and coach Colin Sangster said: “We are disappointed but have to admit that we probably made too many mistakes to win the game, but we can think ourselves a wee bit hard done to regarding some of the play which led up to some of Boroughmuir’s scores.”

There wasn’t going to be a better opportunity for Kirkcaldy to get off the mark in their National 2 campaign than the visit of a toiling Whitecraigs side to Beveridge Park.

The home side took that chance and at 24-10 up at half-time, they were already pulling well away.

Cammy Pilmer converted his own try to open the scoring for Kirkcaldy, Owen Bonner raced in for the next try and although Whitecraigs brought it back to 12-10, Bonner’s second try and one from skipper Josh Laird, with Pilmer converting, gave them that half-time lead and a decent cushion.

Into the second half, Bonner completed his hat-trick, Laird nicked his second and with Jacob Ramsay also helping himself to a brace of tries, the final 38-13 scoreline takes Kirkcaldy up to sixth spot in the table.

Howe of Fife made the long trek to Caithness but in the end it was worthwhile as they came back with a 44-0 win which takes them to fourth spot in National 3.

They ran in eight tries with Andrew Steven claiming a couple and the rest spread between Cammy Walker, Ned Wright, Gareth Clark, Jamie Thomson, Eden Cruikshank and Dave Thomas, with Fraser Ellison landing a couple of conversions.

At Scremerston, unbeaten Berwick took an 8-0 lead but tries from Strathmore’s Jordan Lees and Darren Bell gave the visitors a 10-8 lead at the break.

They were unable to hold on to that lead though and a couple of Berwick penalties and a converted try saw them clinch the points with a 21-10 scoreline, the first time this season they haven’t earned a try bonus.

It was unlucky for Strathie that they came away totally empty handed when their performance merited at least a losing bonus.

Trailing Lasswade by 22-13 at half-time, Perthshire were still in the game at North Inch but the visitors almost doubled their score in the second half while the home side of the scoreboard stubbornly refused to move.

Ewen McDonald had Shire’s only try, Callum Bruce converted it and slotted a couple of penalties but seven tries rained down on them from the visitors – with Sam Humphries and Dale Robertson notching two each and one apiece coming from Russell Gladstone, Blair Smith and Rory McKenzie, with Andy hall landing four conversions.

That third defeat in a row leaves Perthshire third bottom with only a losing bonus to their name.