Kirkcaldy Rugby Club: Blues third bottom of league table after 44-22 home loss to Gordonians

Quintan Sanft’s Blues now sit third bottom of the table with 15 points from 10 matches this season.

An early converted penalty put Gordonians 3-0 up before the visitors increased their lead to eight points with a try.

The hosts’ Fin Smith then slotted a penalty from around 25m to bring the score to 3-8.

Some smart link-up play showed that Gordonians did indeed have quality and an unconverted try followed for 3-13.

Shortly after the restart, Stevie Milne was yellow carded for head contact and the Blues were down to 14 players.

A chat with the referee cost the Blues 10m and subsequently the visitors’ centre helped himself to a converted try. 3-20.

Home captain Rhys Bonner then came off following a shoulder knock and was replaced by Seb Evans.

The Blues pressured Gordonians and just on the stroke of half-time Connor Wood crashed over for a try which was converted by Finlay Smith. 10-20.

With Bonner back in the fray in the second half the Blues began building pressure on the visitors until, after being involved in a grapple for ball possession, he was yellow carded, presumably for advising the referee on his decision making. Back to 14 players once more.

Following some good pressure at scrum time, Gordonians scored a converted try and it was 10-27 in their favour.

Again, some competitive play from Owen Bonner and Seb Evans on their return to action gave some hope for the home side but this was dashed by the visitors’ scrum half who nipped in with a try which was duly converted. 10-34.

The home front row was rejigged once more and once more the Blues heaped some pressure on the visitors resulting in a hard earned try for Seb Evans. 15-34.

There was a definite pattern emerging in what was a game of limited quality rugby wise, the referee was certainly doing the home side no favours, possibly due to the backchat and ultimately Marcus Salt saw a red card for dissent following a few ill chosen comments to the referee.

The referee continued to draw the ire of the home crowd as he continued to generously allow the visitors to dictate where they took their restarts from field position wise.

Following a neat crossfield kick that was not, but very probably should have been intercepted, Gordonians scored a try in the corner to bring the score to 15-39.

Some determined and inventive play by Owen Bonner, Robbie Penman and Archie Chisholm led to a try for Bonner. 22-39.

A try by Gordonians’ flanker finished the game off at 22-44 and the visitors returned to Aberdeen victorious.

Kirkcaldy continue their league campaign at home to second bottom Berwick this Saturday with kick-off at 2pm.