Kirkcaldy Rugby Club: Late heartache for Blues as last gasp Falkirk try sees brave comeback thwarted

A first half horror show for Quintan Sanft’s side at Beveridge Park last Saturday saw them trailing 26-7 at the interval, with Falkirk deserving every point. For most of these opening 40 minutes, the Blues were sadly out of touch, failing to nail tackles or maintain any sort of defensive organisation against a determined Falkirk backline who made the most of every opportunity.

Nearly six minutes had gone when Falkirk's John McKenna slipped around the Kirkcaldy defence to go nearly the length of the pitch to touch down. An easy conversion by Duncan Tomkins made it 7-0 for Falkirk.

Falkirk No 8 Gregor Dodd soon added another try, again converted by Tomkins.

Kirkcaldy’s first try came when Rory Brown went over for the score with Finlay Smith adding the conversion points.

But Falkirk added two more first half tries for a seemingly invincible 19-point interval lead.

However, for the next 30 minutes or more the home team packed much more power into their engine than in the previous 40 and with a couple of minutes of regular time left they incredibly led 28-26 through tries by Robbie Penman, Callum Kennedy and Brown, his second, all converted by Smith.

But Kirkcaldy – whose puff had seemingly gone by injury time due to the considerable effort in turning the game around – just could not hold out and deep into stoppage time Gregor Ramsay went over for the winning score and all five league points for Falkirk.

The Blues were obviously disappointed with the outcome but they did gain two points, one for scoring four tries and one for losing by seven points or under.

Kirkcaldy can definitely take comfort from the fact that, in that second half, a transformation came over the game as the home side seized the initiative, their earlier doubts and errors disappeared and Falkirk had to take a back seat.

Saturday’s defeat leaves the Blues seventh with 13 points from seven games.

Kirkcaldy visit third-placed Peebles in the league this Saturday with kick-off at 3pm.