The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Dundonians topple Stewart’s Melville
It may have been nearing end of the league season with nothing at stake but the BT National 1 clash at Mayfield between Dundee High Rugby and Stewart’s Melville turned out to be a cracker.
Dundee had won the previous meeting this season by 24-17 at Inverleith but were trailing the capital side in the league – until Saturday.
Leading 21-12 at the break Dundee watched Stew/Mel gradually erode that lead and by the end they hung on to win 35-33 with a total of 10 tries going in and one missed conversion by the visitors the only difference between the sides.
The hosts ran in tries by Ian Turnbull, Fraser Mckay, Ross Lemon, Alasdair Mackie and Lewis McLean with Ewan Fox converting all five and although Stew/Mel matched the try count with scores from Gareth Henderson, Jack Somerville, Sean Murchie, Mark Sinclair and Connor McKay, the one conversion missed by Jack Hannay proved crucial.
That win takes High above Stewarts Melville in the table into seventh spot but the Mayfield outfit still have four games to play and a decent return from those could see them advance as high as fourth. Certainly the opposition in those four games suggest that it could be a possibility since apart from next week’s match at Cupar against relegated Howe of Fife the other three are at home against Aberdeen Grammar Rugby who are already safe as are GHA then Jed who will be in the midst of the sevens circuit.
There was a certain sadness about the visit of Howe of Fife to Laigh Bent on Saturday with both the Duffus Park men and Hamilton consigned to BT National 2 next season.
Both sides have had horrendous luck with injuries throughout the season and along with other issues, this has meant that two forward-looking clubs who have invested an enormous amount of effort and money in creating the ideal community club model so desired by the SRU will be relegated with all the consequences that entails.
The 33-26 win at Cupar against Hamilton was one of Howe’s two wins of the season but on their own turf, Hamilton were always unlikely to let their opponents make it a double and so it proved as they turned a 21-7 half-time lead into a 47-28 full time win. Dom Martin, Duncan McIntyre, Connor Crawford and Pete Gray ran in the tries for Howe to at least pick up the try bonus and Martin slotted all four conversions.
At half time at Beveridge Park it looked as though Peebles had blown their chance of staying in the BT National 2 promotion race with Kirkcaldy leading 22-20 and looking good. A big second half effort from the Gytes crew saw them pull back into the game and take a five pointer back home with a 34-27 win. Kurt Littlejohn had a couple of tries for Kirkcaldy, Danny Brown, Finlay Bruce and Connor Wood had one apiece but David Moffat could land only one out of the five which made the difference as Greig Rayburn slotted all four conversions of tries by Callum Anderson, Scott Stoddart, Ewan Jackson and Ryan Stuart as well pinging over two penalties.
Kirkcaldy will survive comfortably in BT National 2 but it is unfortunate that last Saturday was their final home match of the season. Defeat at the hands of promotion challengers Dumfries at North Inch finally confirmed that Perthshire will finish in the relegation zone of the bottom three in BT National 3.
The 10-try thumping as Dumfries ran out 69-22 winners made it impossible for ’Shire to catch Dalziel.