Captain Fin Smith reveals what let Kirkcaldy Rugby Club down in loss at Stewart's Melville


Despite recovering from the concession of an early try to go 7-5 up, Kirkcaldy ended up being 29-7 down at half-time and sustained a yellow card in each half for Callum Kennedy – who was subsequently red carded with 10 minutes remaining – and a second half yellow card for Kieran Mitchell.
Captain Smith, who kicked two conversions on a day when the Blues’ tries were scored by Rory Brown, Timmy Kennedy, Alex Webb and the aforementioned Mitchell, told the Fife Free Press: “It was 7-5 for us for a wee bit but then we kind of capitulated and then fell behind.
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Hide Ad"From 15 minutes in we made a few mistakes and gifted them a few easy scores.
"I think probably a bit of frustration kicked in with the mistakes we were making.
"Then it just turned into chasing the game and we almost essentially forgot just to play our game and play our rugby.
"It probably got too much for us and we struggled to come back.
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Hide Ad"It was fairly one sided at the half. In the second half it was probably more even scoring but we obviously left it too late.”
On the indiscipline which resulted in Callum Kennedy being dismissed, Smith added: “I think Callum’s first yellow card was for a knock on and the second one was a team yellow for a bit of back chat to the referee. It was a bit unlucky.
"It was a frustrating day for everyone and I think a few boys just got carried away. We gave away a lot of penalties that we wouldn’t usually trying to chase the game.
"Stewart’s Melville had one yellow card as well, so discipline wasn’t great from both sides to be honest!
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Hide Ad"In fairness to Stewart’s Melville, they played the windy conditions pretty well and they did the basic things right. We were maybe just trying to push it too much, made a few mistakes and I think our frustration came from our own performance.
"We obviously put ourselves in a difficult position at half-time. We have come back a few times this year but on this occasion it was just too big an ask.
"There were a lot of good things in our performance but the frustration was probably as bad as it’s been in a game this season.
"There were a couple of losses earlier in the season when we just performed badly. There was a lot of good rugby played at times by us in this one, but the frustration boiled over because it was a winnable game and the boys probably thought we could have done a lot better.”
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Hide AdKirkcaldy – fourth with 31 points from 10 matches – now have a break for a few weeks before their next league game at second bottom Preston Lodge on Saturday, January 11 with a 2pm kick-off.
Smith said: “The break is good for the bodies, to let a few boys heal up.
"But at the same time we’ll have training ongoing this week and next week. Then we’re back pretty early into the new year.
"Like all clubs in Scotland, all boys will get a wee rest and get to enjoy the festivities over the Christmas period.
"But the onus will be on some boys to stay fit, stay in the gym and get back to it early on in the new year.”
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