Glenrothes rugby plate finalists in 7s tournament

The glorious weather brought a large crowd to Beveridge Park and the players responded with an afternoon of entertaining running rugby.

The first tie of the afternoon pitted the hosts against the Glens. Glenrothes started slowly with the loss of an early try before Shaun Gray levelled the scores with a typical jinking run. This only spurred on the home team and a further three tries from them gave a half time score of 28-7 in Kirkcaldy’s favour.

The second half also started off with a Kirkcaldy try to extend their lead but was to prove more evenly balanced than the first period. Connor Young pulled one back for Glenrothes. Emerson was involved in the Reds third try when a high tackle on him led to a penalty in the Kirkcaldy 22m area. A quick tap and pass to Russell Grieve saw the scrum half dart through a hole to score. Glenrothes were unable to make further inroads and the tie ended with a score of 35-21.

With only eight teams in the draw, four of them from Kirkcaldy in various guises, this defeat put Glenrothes in the semi-final of the plate where they faced a team of older Blues players calling themselves Wolverines. Glenrothes proved too strong for them. Derek Mitchell opened the scoring, benefitting from a Gray break after a speculative Wolverines kick. Then Gray scored a second, running through the opposition from the shadow of his own posts.

Gray and Chris Docherty combined to foil a Wolverines raid which led to Docherty being sent from the pitch for what was adjudged a high tackle. Despite being short handed Emerson added a third try before the interval as he received a clever offload when backing up a Kyle McIntosh break.

The second half saw the Glens under a little more pressure and the Wolverines scored two tries to bring them within a score of the Reds. As fatigue set in, twice in quick succession, a forward launched a kick deep into Wolverines territory to relieve pressure but that just gifted possession to the opposition. Glenrothes scored the final try as Emerson forced his way close to the Wolverines line before flipping the ball backwards to Ryan Venters to give a final score of 26-14 for the Glens.

The plate final turned out to be an anti-climax for Glenrothes who were well beaten, 31-0, by a strong squad from Perthshire, again playing part of the game with six men after Gray received his marching orders. In the main tournament, Dunfermline edged out the hosts to claim the Heggie Cup. The Glens next outing is at Howe of Fife’s annual tournament in a fortnight’s time.