Kirkcaldy 15-52 Peebles: Halloween horror show as Kirkcaldy are beaten

From being well in contention, they switched off completely and ended up suffering a drubbing.

Peebles v Kirkcaldy is usually closely contested and feisty but the Blues simply didn’t show up in numbers for large parts of the game.

The visitors opened the scoring with a converted try but the Blues rallied and a Fin Smith penalty at least put them on the scoreboard.

Kirkcaldy’s Dayle Turner looked to have scored but the referee saw an infringement.

The continued pressure eventually bore fruit when Kieran Mitchell scored after several phases of attack. Smith converted to push the Blues ahead.

Calum Kennedy then finished well as the Blues stretched their lead to 15-7 but then, two minutes from half-time, the wheels fell off.

Try scorer Kennedy initially made a superb try saving tackle but the Pees were not to be denied and brought themselves within a point with a converted try.

From the restart a Peebles attacker was allowed to collect the ball, make his way to the halfway line unchallenged and then run diagonally to the corner to put the visitors ahead without being inconvenienced by a tackle of any form.

From a leading position, the Blues had completely capitulated.

Worse was to follow in the second half. The Kirkcaldy pack are rarely dominated in the way they were on Friday night.

The Blues suffered the humiliation of two yellow cards to the front row as their scummaging self-destructed.

The visitors could smell blood and basically dismantled their opponents. A penalty try was followed by another score and sadly the pattern continued when Kirkcaldy were restored to a full complement of 15 players.

The visitors added two more scores which the home fans felt were result of an offside and a forward pass respectively, but in truth no amount of blame could be attributed to the referee.

Kirkcaldy, seventh with 19 points from seven games, host Dumfries Saints in the league on Friday with kick-off at 8pm.