Howe of Fife 64-7 West of Scotland

The visitors may have had excuses aplenty in that a number of key players were either injured or unavailable but the reality is that they were outmuscled and outplayed by a strong and efficient Howe of Fife squad.

West started badly, and it went downhill from there.

Within a few minutes the home team found an overlap on the right wing and number 4 Ryan Milne touch down, duly converted by Howe’s Shaun Gray. West did manage to contain the home side for a period after that and did make some good breaks but were let down by knock-ons and poor passing when scoring chances beckoned.

Howe added to their score after 20 minutes with a penalty in front of the posts – easily converted to take their lead to 10–0.

Shortly after that they added to that lead when poor defence by West saw the Howe number 8 Chris Mann run through a number of tackles to score under the posts.

Again converted by Gray.

Just before half time West kicked a penalty to touch and drove the resulting maul on the line.

This was illegally taken down and a penalty try resulted for West giving them a seven point on the scoreboard.

Unfortunately Howe replied with a penalty try of their own at the other end and the half time whistle blew with the score at 24–7.

It was a better start from West after the break but it certainly wasn’t their day as an interception by Gray saw him run the length of the field to score with the conversion missed.

A bonus point was added to the home side and a mountain to climb for West with the score at 29–7.

West managed some further forays into the home half but again were let down by mishandling and their heads went down allowing the home side to take complete control.

They ran in another five tries without reply from West taking the final score to a fine 64–7 win for the Duffus club.

This weekend Howe play host to Peebles.