Howe of Fife hoping to get third time lucky after 70-0 thumping
Howe of Fife host Newton Stewart this coming Saturday hoping to bounce back from their biggest hiding of recent years, a 70-0 spanking up at Highland seven days prior, by getting third time lucky.
Kick-off at Cupar’s Duffus Park against the Dumfries and Galloway club is at 3pm and head coach Niall Lear’s Fifers go into fixture No 3 of the new Arnold Clark National League Division 2 rugby season targeting a rerun of last term’s corresponding meeting, a 35-14 victory for the hosts.
Their try-scorers that time round as they made amends for losing the reverse fixture out west three months prior 19-12 were left-winger Gregor Smith, blindside flanker James Stockwell, No 8 Fraser Allan at the double and right-winger Kenni Gray, with fly-half Ross Maitland adding five conversions.
Howe, captained by inside-centre Eden Cruickshank, will be out to make further amends this weekend as their 11-try Inverness away-day defeat was not only their heaviest hiding in a long while but also the second time they’d drawn a blank in the space of four fixtures following an 11-0 loss at home to Glasgow High Kelvinside in April.
The Fifers’ opening-round defeat at home to Peebles on Saturday, August 29, might have been a close-run thing, with the Borderers only just prevailing by 13-12, but the weekend after’s Canal Park catastrophe was nothing of the sort, having seen head coach Dave Carson’s Highland make sure of a four-try bonus point by half-time after going 27-0 up before almost trebling that scoreline following the break.
The Highlanders’ first-half try-scorers were captain and scrum-half Hugo Crush with two, hooker Ollie Smith and openside flanker Gordon Gregor, with fly-half Scotty Fraser kicking two conversions and a penalty.
Touching down in the second half were Svend Dale Pedersen at the double, fellow lock Tom Smith, replacement Owen McDonald, inside-centre James Blair, right-winger Dan Corr and full-back Henry Lapslie, with Fraser and Blair each adding two further conversions.
That result leaves the Fifers and their hosts at opposite ends of the table, the former bottom with one point from two fixtures and the latter top with a 100% haul of ten.
Upcoming opponents Newton Stewart are third from bottom two rounds in, on two points, after losing by 30-22 away to Preston Lodge in East Lothian first time out, then by 27-24 at home to Falkirk on Saturday gone.