Kirkcaldy Rugby Club: Blues hit back from 19-0 behind to defeat Berwick 50-31 at Beveridge Park

The three early Berwick tries – two of which were converted – gave them their 19-point advantage at a cold but bright Beveridge Park.

But the Blues hit back when a lineout launched beyond the tail of the pack by Craig Hamilton, back from injury, set up Rhys Bonner’s first try, conversion missed.

A converted Berwick score then increased the Borderers’ lead to 21 points, with the away team then having a player yellow carded.

Into the second half and the Blues' Owen Bonner drove forward and provided a scoring opportunity for Connor Littlejohn to hit the whitewash. 10-26.

Berwick hit back almost immediately when their no.14 showed some genuine pace to race through and score out wide. But Rhys Bonner once more scored between the posts, Fin Smith duly converted and it was 17-31.

Another efficient lineout resulted in Rhys Bonner grabbing his hat-trick, converted by Fin Smith to bring the score to 24-31.

With Quintan Sanft’s hosts now piling on the pressure, Rory Brown picked up and scored near the posts, with Fin Smith kicking the conversion for parity.

It got even better for the relentless Blues when Kieran Mitchell scored out wide to put them in front for the first time at 36-31.

A yellow card for the Berwick no.3 followed and they made the decision to go uncontested at scrums.

The first uncontested scrum led to a Blues try for Connor Littlejohn who helped himself to his second, duly converted by Fin Smith for 43-31.

Fine work from Rory Brown then led to a try for Callum Kennedy which was also converted by Fin Smith.

Kieran Mitchell received a yellow card for repeated offside and it was briefly 14 players a side until Berwick were restored to 15 players.

But Kirkcaldy didn’t concede any more points and the victory puts them seventh with 20 points from 11 games ahead of this Saturday’s league trip to fourth-placed Newton Stewart which kicks off at 2pm.