St Andrews on a windy and occasionally wet Sunday with four teams sharing one pitch meant lots of hanging about before and between games. . . .. which in turn brings distraction, loss of focus and lack of momentum.

Game one saw us start slow and unfortunately maintain a pretty slow pace for the duration. Mackie were 3-0 up at half time and only Rory really seemed to be interested in playing with some fast running and hard tacking. The second half and some of the guys woke up but Mackie were the only team scoring and they ran out 5-0 winners with the Shire never really threatening their line.

Mackie 5 – Perthshire 0 MOM Rory - hard work and determination as well as on the pitch ability

Thankfully the guys clicked for the second game and we saw a better team effort. Working from centre Alex had some great runs mixing in agility, movement and pace as well as first class presentation of the ball when he was stopped. One of the runs of the game with some fancy footwork had to go to Campbell H but as he was wearing a Kirkcaldy jersey at the time I'm tempted to discount it . . . .

The crash ball pairing of Martin and George worked well both scoring using size and pace to get good tries after big hits.

We were 3-0 up and and the opportunity to mix on some new players – Andrew made a big impact with powerful running scoring in the corner. Conner, slotting in at hooker gave us clean ball in the scrum and had some impressive throwing in the line out. The defensive effort was led by Rory and Gregor both of whom effectively scythed anything down that came at them – and when we had the chance to move the ball out wide Reece showed he's not forgotten how to score getting over twice. Another highlight was when George managed an impressive looping pass offload which was well caught by Callum - at full stretch - which kept the game alive and the momentum with Shire. Another good outing from Callum who played well in attack and defence and was so good for Kirkcaldly we had to ask for him back at half time.

Perthshire 6 – Kirkcaldy 0. MOM . Alex – inspired running

Game three, the weather had changed and not for the better – we'd also had a two game wait and the guys were cold. Jonathan was playing determinedly in defence with hard tackling coupled with several aggressive runs in attack – he was through and clear when the ref. determined he had handed-off a Madrass player and the game was pulled back – unfortunate but the effort was great to see. With the wet ball passing options were limited and rucking was key to going forward - we held our own aginst a determined Madrass - who had rucked other teams off the park - with Gregor leading the way in showing how to drive to secure the ball. Elliot, playing confident in his role as scrum half, was providing quality ball to the backs. Rachel got her first real touches of the ball and did not panic when faced with an oncoming pack – more experience and she will be ready to lead the attack.

The first half came to a close just after George got the ball from a well worked set piece and smashed through for a great score – Shire led 1 -0 at the half.

The second half was just as tight – Madrass sneaked one in with some good passing but Shire were straight back at them. By this time the touch line was getting padded by injuries with Rory, Martin, Campbell and Reece all struggling which put Arran in at second row, Alex and scrum half and Elliot as Stand off. Scrums went well and Alex has clearly got the 'feed' down to a T! Conner was cleanly securing the ball and Arran helping the ball back. . .unfortunately we were running out of steam as quickly as players and in the end had to settle for a 1-1 draw.

Perthshire 1 – Madrass 1. MOM - Jonathan for his aggressive, determined play.

Overall an improvement on last week (discounting game 1) – the guys are finding their positions which is really helping pitch and space awareness. A couple of strong runs today could have been converted to scores if there had been more support and this is and area we need to focus. Rucks worked well when there were players but once or twice players were by themselves and we either lost the ball to turnover or got penalised for holding on. The number of knocks is beginning to show and the guys need to be focusing on some core strength through the week - see Emails for details.