After two heavy defeats against very good sides and suffering a
string of injuries, Dunbar took to the field with nearly their full
squad available. The green team had the better of the opening
exchanges, but Dalkeith held firm. Thomas (Salad) Salkeld was the
first to break loose on the left hand side, but was eventually caught
ten meters short. Josh Stewart in almost identical fashion was also
caught a few meters to go and the resultant knock on prevented the score. But third time
lucky, Captain Finlay Darrah with the aid of a ram rod handoff broke
through in the same area of the pitch. Jack Young converted the try to put the visitors 7-0 ahead. Dalkeith made their first forage up field after 10 minutes. With Dunbar constantly incurring the
wrath of the ref, a number of penalties were awarded close to their
line. But a mixture of good tackling and good fortune enabled Dunbar
to clear their lines eventually. Josh Stewart then broke through the home
team’s defence again to touch down and went on to convert his own try. .

More penalties were conceded, mainly caused by slipped bindings and
boring in. Two 10 metre penalties were rather harshly awarded
for apparent back chat against the visitors. However the ref is the
boss and the lads must learn to keep quiet. This had a galvanising effect on the
forwards. From then on they out scrummed their opponents and rucking
reached a very good level. One such ruck saw the ball eventually
reach the inform Rogan Paul on the wing who like a rampant gazelle
galloped sixty metres down the right touch line, neatly side stepped
the covering full back in the in goal area and placed the ball behind
the posts. Young converted to extend the visitors lead to 21-0. Another Darrah trade mark run saw a
further five points added. This time Jack (Mario) Armstrong shanked
his conversion effort, blemished what was otherwise another
promising game in the number ten shirt.

Scott Hamilton replaced Salkeld at half time. With his first touch he ran
practically the width of the pitch before dashing forward forty
meters , but was just caught in time. Then Armstrong cut through the
now tiring Dalkeith defence to be tackled, off loaded to the ever
supportive Matty Pickles who in turn off loaded to Darrah who plunged
over the line. The best try of the day!! No the ref judged the
final pass as forward. . Prop Aidan Brown too had forage forward
but again was floored, if a pop pass rather than a placement had been
done supporting Pickles might well have crossed the whitewash. Conlin
McArthur and Finn Dorin replaced Ross Blair and Zach Gillespie (who
shall we say didn’t share the refs interpretation of the scrummaging
rules).

Josh Stewart added another brace of tries to complete his hat trick and converted them both. Tom Wight replaced Young at scrum half.

A scrum close to the Edinburgh team's try line saw Darrah switch to no
8 (in a prearranged move) pick the ball up and dive in the corner on
the blindside. . The kick was missed. Josh Nicol making a very welcome
return to the Dunbar Squad replaced Paul and immediately received a pass
from Stewart and scampered down the touch line but lost the ball in the
contact. The ref then concluded the second section. With Dalkeith
carrying so many walking wounded, did not wish to play a final 20
minutes development period. This was very unfortunate for those substitutes who
had just come on. Apologies to the lads concerned. Final Score
Dalkeith 0 Dunbar 45.

Players are starting to settle in their positions and hopefully will
continue to gel. Commitment as usual was good. But there are many
things to work on as tougher games lie ahead. But a good progress
report so far.