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

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.

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.

"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.

"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.”

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.”