Preseason Friendly

With a week to go before the start of the Caledonian League Division 1, it was always going to be a tough warm up game when Boroughmuir came to call. The visitors set out their intentions early when when, in 3 minutes they went 0-5 up with an unconverted try. Boroughmuir continued to take the game to Dunfermline by pushing the home side in the set piece and dominating the loose. Their persistence paid off when they scored a converted try in the 8th minute to take a 0-12 lead. The visitors could have increased their lead in it were not for some resolute defending from the home side who were starting to come in to the game which settled down into to an evenly matched contest. Dunfermline’s persistence paid off when, in the 25th minute, Gordon McLean went over in the corner for Dunfermline’s first try, but unfortunately the angle was too tight for Connor Simpkins to convert. 5-12 Boroughmuir. Boroughmuir struck back with 2 tries in the 30th and 32nd minute to take a 5 – 22 lead.
Dunfermline came back again with another try, this time from Connor Simpkins in the 35th minute. Simpkins converted his own try to reduce Boroughmuir’s lead to 10 points. The home side continued to push Boroughmuir, but some poor tackling allowed ‘Muir to score another unconverted try in the 38th minute. The game then settled back into an evenly matched contest and it was Dunfermline who were to score again in the 47th minute with a well worked try by Darroch McKague that showed good interplay between the backs and forwards. Boroughmuir scored next in the 50th minute with a try that exploited a huge overlap on Dunfermline’s right wing to take the game beyond the home side’s reach. Dunfermline were not finished when Lliam Quarm released Gordon McLean on the half way line. McLean ran through the Boroughmuir cover to score a fine individual try under the posts for an easy conversion by Connor Simpkins. In the final moments of the game, ‘Muir scored their final try to take the game 29-43.
The game was a lot closer than the final score suggests, and could have been a lot closer if Dunfermline had put in the tackles in the early stages. Some errant kicking from hand when the ball should have been fed outside also contributed by needlessly giving possession to the visitors. Despite this, there were a lot of positives to be taken from Dunfermline’s display. There were some good individual performances from Cammy Dunn, Adam McKenzie and newcomer Marcus Salt, while the overall fitness of the team was of a far higher standard than this time last year as the team were full of running right up to the final whistle. All the sessions on the hill are paying dividends big time. The attitude of the players is also worthy of note as at no time during the game did the heads go down. If Dunfermline can take this forward into next week, then the home game against Kirkcaldy in the league should be a thrilling encounter.