Kirkcaldy Rugby Club: Dose of Salt among tries as Blues win over Cartha Queen’s Park

Marcus Salt scored try on his 100th Kirkcaldy appearance (Pic Michael Booth)Marcus Salt scored try on his 100th Kirkcaldy appearance (Pic Michael Booth)
Marcus Salt scored try on his 100th Kirkcaldy appearance (Pic Michael Booth)
In a fitting tribute to Marcus Salt making his 100th appearance for Kirkcaldy, the Blues enjoyed a 40-20 home league win over Cartha Queen’s Park on Saturday with Salt scoring the final try for good measure.

Despite taking a 7-0 lead in this Tennent’s National League Division 2 encounter thanks to Dayle Turner’s early try converted by Fin Smith, the hosts were then stunned when two Cartha penalties and a converted try put the underdogs 13-7 up.

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But a swift second try by Turner – again converted by Smith – put Kirkcaldy 14-13 ahead at half-time before scores by Josh Laird and Rhys Bonner, the first of which saw Smith add the extras, saw the Blues surge 26-13 in front.

A penalty try then increased Quintan Sanft’s side’s advantage to 20 points, with the away men’s deficit reduced to 33-20 by a converted Cartha try.

Then Salt put the icing on the cake with a try converted by Smith, as Kirkcaldy gained a victory in their first 80 minutes in the league since losing 24-22 at home to Falkirk way back on December 3.

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"Marcus led the team out on his 100th appearance for Kirkcaldy and it was nice that he got a wee try at the end,” Kirkcaldy director of rugby development Grant Letham told the Fife Free Press.

“It had been pretty obvious from the first-half showings that both teams hadn’t played for a month.

"It was pretty uninspiring stuff but we got it together at half-time. I don’t know what Quintan (Kirkcaldy head coach) said to the players at half-time but whatever it was, it worked.

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"It was a pretty dominant second-half performance. They played the way they should have done for the whole game.

"When we had got ahead earlier I don’t know if they became complacent or not but we were pegged back a bit.

"In fairness, Cartha never really gave up. They gave it a good go but we beat them well in the end.”

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Kirkcaldy, fifth with 31 points from 11 games, visit bottom club Hamilton Bulls in the league this Saturday with kick-off at 2pm.

Letham said: "If we think we are going to win easily by turning up, I’m afraid we are in for a pretty sad afternoon.

"They are a decent team, a well run club with nice people. They are not there to make up the numbers.”

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