Dunfermline dig deep to beat Dumfries

S2s keep playing until the final whistle to scrape win

Dumfries made the long trip to play us, with a much improved side from last season, and contributed to an excellent game of rugby. Their captain and no. 8 lead by example, they have a good core of players with a good balance of skill and abrasiveness, and it’s clear their coaching team has instilled a hard working ethic into their squad. We look forward to many battles with them in seasons to come.
A little unfortunate then the amount of hot air coming from one part of their sideline, which didn’t seem to fit well with the ‘no excuses’-type attitude of this Dumfries team. We’ll buy him a ticket for East End Park on their next visit.

To the game. Dumfries travelled slightly short handed, but managed to muster 13 players, and we were happy to play them on equal numbers. A few injuries had robbed us of the services of Aidan, Gregor, Jamie and Oskar, but we still had enough numbers.
Dumfries quickly opened the scoring after putting pressure on us from the kick off, and followed up quickly with a second try after 10 minutes. If it hadn’t been clear up until now, the boys now knew that they were in for a fight. Dunfermline rallied with a score through Duncan halfway through the half, before Dumfries extended their lead 5 minutes later.
Dumfries favoured a direct approach, with their no.8 at the forefront of most of their plays, whilst Dunfermline struggled to put their wide runners into space, mostly due to the pressure Dumfries were exerting in defence.
Finally though, Dunfermline attacked well to put Matthew in space to claw back another score at the end of the half to keep us in touch, Andrew converting with his third successful kick.
The second half started as the first half finished, plenty of committed tackling, good hard rucking, but generally good discipline on both sides. Dumfries opened the scoring again, but a score from Kian kept us in touch after a spell of pressure following a smartly taken quick throw from Andrew.
Dumfries pulled away once again after a bullocking run from their no. 8 resulted in a try, which looked like a decisive score.
However, the team, under Finlee’s captaincy, pulled together for a final effort. Matthew put in a vital tackle around the half-way line when it looked like their ball carrier had enough space and pace to round him and run in for the score, and a couple of phases later Dunfermline gathered some messy ball for Kian to run in his second try. Only one score down now in to the last two minutes. Dumfries attacked and looked once again like they had done enough to score, with a three man overlap facing Brodie 10m from our line. Somehow Brodie clawed their attacker down before he could pass the ball out, then helped out in turning the ball over – terrific effort. This led to a play which ended in Jack gathering the ball in his own half, and outstripping the defence to score under the posts, to put us in front for the first time! Andrew converted to finish a perfect 5 kicks out of 5.
Just time for the restart, Dumfries kicked long, Matthew H gathered and took it well into contact. Charlie gathered from the ruck and put the ball into touch to end the match.
Final Result: Dunfermline 20 – 18 Dumfries.