Dunbar welcomed former coach Steve Dick and his Portobello team to Hallhill for the latest round of league matches. Dunbar fielded a weakened team in the previous meeting away and came back pointless. The home team were almost at full strength and were looking to improve their league position. Portobello were one point and one place above the East Lothian outfit.
Portobello started the match with a bang and Dunbar were quickly on the back foot. Dunbar were guilty of encroaching in the back line and Portobello were awarded a penalty. The visitors stand-off had no problem putting the first points on the board. Dunbar eventually put together a well worked move which saw them threaten the visitor’s line only for over exuberance to get the better of them. The referee signalled for the penalty as Dunbar went to ground killing the ball. Disaster struck as Portobello came straight down field to score through former North Berwick player Rob Ritchie in the corner. The winger outstripped two defenders to score despite the valiant tackle by Dunbar skipper jamie peters. The conversion was missed but the visitor’s had a healthy 8-0 lead after just 9 minutes. From the kick off Dunbar gained good ground before Portobello were guilty of going offside. jamie peters calmly slotted over the penalty to reduce the deficit after 12 minutes. Dunbar lost centre Sandy Thomson to injury and he was replaced by chris greco who moved into the pack with Paul Pritchard moving to centre. Portobello replied with a penalty of their own, after 18 minutes. The original penalty saw the home side guilty of not retreating the 10 metres and the closer position allowed Portobello to regain their eight point lead. Dunbar then lost a second player to injury with Ally Brown being replaced by Keiran Donnellan which saw a change of position with gary peters moving to the wing.
Dunbar were again penalised on the visitors 10 metre line and again were pushed back 10 metres for chatting back to the referee. This time the referee deemed the communication to be serious enough to issue a yellow card to Dunbar full back gary peters on 22 minutes. Within two minutes the sides were level in numbers when the referee issued the Portobello prop Gavin Hume a yellow card for use of the shoulder. Dunbar surged up field and were rewarded with a well worked try when Paul Pritchard crashed over after good line out was secured. jamie peters added the conversion to bring Dunbar to within one point after 31 minutes. John Peebles had an excellent chance to score but was bundled into touch as the referee blew for half time.
HALF TIME
DUNBAR 10 PORTOBELLO 11
With the match in the balance and playing with a slight breeze, Dunbar needed to get off to a good start and keep up the pressure. With barely one minute of the half the referee adjudged that Calum Champion’s tackle was high and merited a yellow card. This seemed a rather harsh decision by the referee who was being assessed. It was the home team who were a man down that took the game by the scruff of the neck. Good pressure saw Portobello go offside and the penalty attempt sailed narrowly past the right hand post. Dunbar were again on a level playing field when the visitors big winger was yellow carded. This was the fourth yellow card shown in a match which was played in great spirits. From the penalty jamie peters gave Dunbar the lead for the first time in the match on 46 minutes. Dunbar had three further penalty attempts but they all went wide of the uprights. Dunbar second row stuart crichton was making a big presence with some great runs through the middle of the Porty defence. One such run saw the lock almost make the line before being pulled down two metres short. The ball was quickly recycled and moved along the line for keith courtney to squeeze over after 63 minutes. Dunbar made several changes with Mills coming on at scrum half with Clutton moving to wing forward. From the re-start it was Portobello’s turn to be a man down, this time for the remainder of the match. Their prop forward Gavin Hume who had previously been yellow carded was shown a further yellow card which led to a red card. Dunbar now had a man advantage and a seven point lead which should have been enough to see them home. Portobello had other ideas and opened the game up and started to stretch the Dunbar team. Dunbar wing forward keith courtney was yellow carded by the referee for little or no reason to bring the teams level in playing numbers. The visitor’s reduced the lead to four points with a well taken penalty kick on 73 minutes. Dunbar secured the win on 74 minutes when Calum Champion burst through a couple of tackles before sending Crichton through. The big lock was stopped but managed to offload to his skipper, jamie peters, who burst over to score. The Dunbar captain converted his own try to extend the Dunbar lead to 25-14. Dunbar saw out the remaining few minutes to record a very good victory. Man of the match for Dunbar was Paul Pritchard who recently joined the club as Development Officer.
The match was probably the cleanest match played by these two clubs in many a year but the referee still produced six yellow and one red card. The referee’s actions at times spoilt what was a good contest by two evenly matched teams.
Dunbar now have to wait until the new year before commencing league duties away to Preston Lodge.