Dunfermline vs Currie

Currie took away the spoils in this friendly meeting between the two sides at McKane, and due to the nature of this match, the game was played over three thirds rather than the two halves. Dunfermline started well against the national champions at under 16 level, and for the first half of the first third, the game was played deep in Currie territory. The Dunfermline pack more than held their own against a large pack while the backs moved the ball well, but Currie had a well marshalled defence that the home side were unable to penetrate and capitalise on the pressure they exerted. Unfortunately it was Currie who broke the deadlock in the 14th minute when they took a scrum against the head on the Dunfermline 5 metre line to score next to the posts to take a 0-5 lead as their kicker missed the conversion in front of the posts. Dunfermline still took the game to Currie, and a good run from Angus Thomson in the 16th minute took the ball up to the Currie line, but the referee deemed that a Dunfermline player came in from the side of the ruck, and the ensuing penalty allowed Currie to clear the danger. Back again came Currie, and in the 22nd minute of the first period of play, scored a converted try to give the visitors a 0-12 lead at the first interval.
The second period of play started with more misery for Dunfermline when Currie scored in the 24th minute. From a ruck inside the Dunfermline 22, Currie broke on the blind side and ran the ball through some poor Dunfermline tackling to score. This time the Currie Kicker made no mistake and took the visitors into a 0-17 lead. The game continued to be an “end to end” encounter, and Dunfermline nearly got on to the score sheet when Angus Thomson, supporting a good run by his co-flanker Alex Foster, got over the Currie line, but on this occasion the referee judged that the ball was held up. Dunfermline continued to press, and this paid off in the 34th minute when Thomson broke through the Currie back line to feed to Andy Pollock who went over in the corner for an unconverted try to take the score to 5-17. In the 38th minute, Dunfermline nearly added to their tally with some pressure play on the Currie try line, but the visitors turned over the ruck, and with the Dunfermline team committed to attack, ran the ball in to score their fourth try. This was duly converted to take the score to 5-24. Five minutes later, it was Dunfermline’s turn to score after an extended period of pressure with Dunfermline camped in the Currie 5 metre are when the ball was fed out to Toby Gayfer from the loose, who went over the line next to the posts to give Connor Simpkins an easy conversion to give a 12-24 score line.
The third and final period of play followed the same pattern as the first two, with both sides eager to add to their tally. Five minutes into the final period, it was Currie who were to score an unconverted try to take the score to 5-29. Dunfermline were still full of running and continued to take the game to the visitors. A moment of confusion occurred in a Dunfermline scrum on the half way line when poor communication between Gordon MacLean and Lliam Quarm saw them both try to pick up the ball. It was almost as if one of them was speaking New Zealandish! No real harm was done as the ball went out to the blindside, but this time the attack came to naught. For the rest of the game, both defences held firm, and the game ended 12-29 to Currie.

This was an entertaining game with Dunfermline gave as good as they got. They deserved more, and indeed could have scored another two tries, once when the ball was held up over the Currie line, and had they scored in the 37th minute, Currie wouldn’t have ran the ball back for their fourth try. This was a good team performance against a top Edinburgh side. MacAulay Simpkins played well at scrum half while Euan McLeod, who came on at stand off looks to be a useful addition to the half backs and provides cover in this area. The back row were at their usual dependable best while the pack as a whole performed well in both the loose and set piece. This performance bodes well for the upcoming home and away fixtures against Dundee eagles.