The new crop of Dunfermline RFC P4s got off to a good start in their first competitive matches at this level. We welcomed visiting teams from Musselburgh and from Perth to McKane Park for our first taste of matches involving full contact tackling, and we acquitted ourselves well.
Squad:
Aidan Symes, Andrew Duff, Andrew Storie, Austin Watson, Charlie Burns, Duncan Colston, Emma Megahey, Gregor Thomson, Iain Sheil, Jamie Anderson, Kailo Clark, Mackenzie Timmins

First up were Perth. The increased size of the pitch from that of last year in the micros meant that there was plenty of space to exploit in attack, but also to cover in defence. This, and both sides still getting used to tackling, led to a high scoring game which Perth edged in an end to end game; Perth winning by a score of 9-7. Plenty of cause for encouragement in some decent running in attack, and though we put in lots of good tackles, we weren’t well enough organised to hold out their attacks.
The second game saw us up against Musselburgh, which featured several big lads which would really test our tackling. On the whole our players put a lot of work into defence, and generally put in some excellent tackles – all players getting involved. In terms of going forward, some practice in-between games on our passing and restarts had paid off as Dunfermline showed a bit more fluency going forward, resulting in several first half tries. These improvements meant that we went into half time 2 scores ahead, and even though Musselburgh came back strongly in the second half, Dunfermline posted their first victory of the season with a 9-8 win.

Lots of positives from today’s play, including good purposeful running and committed tackling. Our passing and support play, while decent at times, could certainly improve by moving the ball out to the wings and into space – but it’s still early in the season. The players also showed good awareness in recycling the ball through tackles, and a bit of work in training on rucking will further improve this area and help us compete for opposition ball in the tackle area.
In terms of tackling, everyone put in at least one really good tackle at some point today, so both the players and coaches can take confidence from that. We’ll continue to work on tackle technique, and also on keeping the defence organised so there is less space to cover, then the tackles will become easier.