Following a comprehensive win the previous week against Dalkeith 2nds, Dunbar were expecting to welcome Preston Lodge 3rds to Hallhill. However due to a reorganisation of the reserve leagues, the seconds were now scheduled to play Musselburgh 3rds.

With still a large amount of players unavailable or injured, the seconds managed to borrow a number of under 18 players. Lining up for the seconds this week was Ian Thomson, Hendrik Visagie, Chris Baikie, Stuart King, colin anderson, Neil Spowart, Kyle Donnellan, Dougal Wishart, Craig McIlhone, Ross Preston, Lukas Van Niekerk, Graeme Fletcher, Jamie Crichton, Young Andy, and Mr Greg Patrizio. On the bench for this thrilling encounter were Ross McKenzie, Robert Lunam and another Andy. The team had a great blend of youth and experience and due to the injury of Paul McCloskey, Kyle Donnellan was nominated Captain and Neil Spowart pack leader.

With the game kicking off, Dunbar immediately began to utilise the pace and fitness of the youngsters to full effect. However the Musselburgh team defended admirably and it took ten minutes before Dunbar broke the deadlock. Dunbar stole the ball from a Musselburgh lineout and attacked the line with great pace and aggression. Eventually the captain for the day squeezed over for the first of ten tries. With the lineout being dominated by Dunbar, a fine backs move resulted in the ball being passed out wide to the newly converted winger, Jamie Crichton who scored a cracking try. The third try was a result of some fine interlinking play between the two South African players whose pace and strength played havoc with Musselburgh all game and it was eventually Lukas who scored under the posts.

Craig McIlhone managed to squeeze over the line for the fourth try after some fine forward drives and the Musselburgh team started to look tired and began questioning some of the refereeing decisions.

The Dunbar backs were in superb form and it wasn’t long before Greg Patrizio managed to get on the score sheet with a fine solo effort.

The flood gate soon opened and further tries from Lukas (who scored two on the day), Stuart King, young Andy on the wing whose dive and forward roll received a great ovation from the enthused Dunbar crowd and one last try from our other South African Star Andy put Musselburgh away. However not to be undone, Musselburgh did bounce back to score a fine forwards try under the posts but it was all too late. With seven successful conversations from Ross, Dunbar won the match 64 - 7 and in this kind of form can only look forward to the remaining games of the season.

Next week the twos travel to Boness and it’s important that we maintain the momentum and fulfil all the remaining fixtures!

Well done to Doug and to big Woody for making sure these games are being played and can I ask all players to let Doug and/ or Woody know your availability asap. A big thanks also to Callum and Scott for making some of the U18's available this week and on this showing, Dunbar can look forward to these guys making a big presence in the years to come