Kirkcaldy Rugby Club miraculously battle past Garnock in cup despite having no replacements and getting two men yellow carded

Taking on the runaway National League Division 4 leaders in a freezing north Ayrshire, Quintan Sanft’s National 2 side pulled it back to 15-7 by half-time thanks to Kieran Mitchell’s try converted by Gavin McKenzie, before booking a home second round tie against local rivals Howe of Fife this Friday, kick-off 7.30pm, courtesy of second half scores by Stevie Milne, Littlejohn and Kennedy (2), plus three more McKenzie conversions.

Blues head coach Sanft told the Fife Free Press: "I’m obviously very proud we managed to win with only having 15 players and no replacements while getting two yellow cards.

"I think getting two yellow cards in a normal league fixture you’re pretty much – not guaranteed a loss – but you’d be struggling to win a game.

“We were missing five starting players who were at the Italy-Scotland game because our fixture at Garnock was arranged way after the boys had already booked flights.

"That pretty much gave Garnock an upper hand. We were playing into a head wind in the first half and they knew the pitch well which contributed to us going 15-0 down.

"And only having 13 players on the pitch with the yellow cards didn’t help.

"But we understood that if we held onto the ball for long periods we would suffocate them, especially a team that’s high in confidence and racking up points in their division.

"We came back to score that try before half-time which was a turning point in terms of stopping the flow of their game. It obviously gave us a boost and then going into the second half we continued putting on the pressure.

"Our 15 boys did really well to stay on. Our fullback Robbie Penman rolled his ankle halfway through that second half but he soldiered on.

"Under normal circumstances he would definitely have come off, but he knew that we didn’t have anyone else on the bench. I pretty much asked him if he wanted to come off and he said no.

"It was Robbie’s first game back after a long injury with his ankle so you can really see his commitment to the club.”

Although some of the five men who were over in Italy had this week had problems with return flights from Rome being cancelled, Sanft said he fully expected all of them to be back and available to take on Howe of Fife, currently fourth in National 3, at Beveridge Park this Friday.

"It’s always a tough test, especially against a local club in what is pretty much a derby game,” Sanft added. “I think league statures don’t come into play, it’s just pretty much down to pride and how you perform on the day.

"We’ll have a stronger squad out than the one we had last weekend.”