Dunfermline Ladies claim derby victory over Kirkcaldy in league
DUNFERMLINE Ladies have opened the second stage of their league season by claiming a derby victory at Kirkcaldy.
The team, coached by Gary Kenhard, won 19-12 in the first of their Caledonia Midlands / East Region League Two, stage two fixtures, on Sunday.
After finishing on top of the standings after the first round of fixtures, which saw each team face each other once, Dunfermline are going head-to-head with Kirkcaldy, Perthshire and Lismore, who made up the initial top four, to determine final placings, with the teams who placed fifth to eighth also facing each other after a league split.
The McKane Park side go Lismore this Sunday (2pm) for their next fixture, and comes after the team, which began its journey in 2019, have overcome tough times to find themselves in an upwards trajectory.
Sheryl Wilson, a player with the team who is currently injured, and is helping out on the sidelines, previously spoke to Press Sport about their progress, and said that opting to continue during hard periods has proved worthwhile.
“The challenges that we had over the past couple of years, where we were just striving for a win, our heads our were going down quite a bit with the continuous losses,” she said.
“I think this year, with the fact we had a couple of wins under our belt at the start of the season, has given us the motivation and drive to continue on like that.
“We’ve came out on top, which is very different from sitting at the bottom, or near the bottom, which is very different from sitting at the bottom, or near the bottom, which is what we were used to the last couple of years.
“We tried not to let it knock our confidence because we were still a very new team.
“A lot of these teams have been running for years and years, and we could’ve just chucked in the towel and went back down to development.
“We could’ve just decided after two years of not doing very well in the league environment that we could’ve just went down to be a development team again, but we decided, no, we’re going to keep trying to play competitively in the league.
“It’s worked out well for us this season.”
FREE-SCORING Rosyth Sharks produced a superb 68-5 response to their previous week’s defeat by notching 10 tries at Grangemouth Stags second XV.
The Harley Street side were beaten 45-10 at Crieff and Strathearn the week prior to their trip across the Kincardine Bridge, going 17-0 down in the opening 15 minutes.
Head coach Mark Love lamented “a few errors in the key areas”, as well as “some decisions that didn’t go our way” in that match, but was looking for his team to bounce back after acknowledging they produced good moments, and were competitive, after a slow start.
He was pleased to see his players react positively to that setback, with all-but-one of their tries being converted.
“After last week’s performance it was good to get a convincing win away from home,” he said.
“We scored 10 tries and only missed one conversion. The guys reacted in a positive manner this week and came out the blocks firing, with us getting an early score within the first two minutes.
“The structure we have been working on clicked, and a few of the work-ons from training that week also made a difference going forward. Grangemouth competed well and put us under a bit of pressure, however our defensive line worked well, and at points forced the mistakes.
“There are a few things we still need to work on as our penalty count was too high, which resulted in us receiving two yellow cards.
“In a closer fixture, that could have cost us the game.”
This Saturday Sharks, who sit fourth in the table, host Bo’ness, who they defeated 45-8 in September’s reverse fixture, at 2pm.