Kirkcaldy Rugby Club roar to top of table with third straight win

Having beaten Stewart’s Melville 37-35 at home the previous weekend, the triumph over Lodge represents the second straight match where Quintan Sanft’s Blues – who finished second bottom last term – have seen off the team leading the league before kick-off. Their latest victory came despite going 14-0 down in the first half.

“I’m delighted with three wins to start the league season,” Sanft told the Fife Free Press. “Especially after the results of last year. It’s been a really good start.

"The fact that we’re beating teams that were above us always helps as well.

"I was disappointed how we started on Saturday because we went well behind when they scored 14 points unanswered.

"I’m not sure if we were slugglish or gave them too much respect as they were top and had been beating some good teams.

"But then we woke up and started playing.

"Our captain Fin is stepping up to the mark and taking more responsibility this year in terms of driving the team.

"Everyone now wants to play. And the fact that – although our seconds went down on Saturday – they’ve had some good results, so everyone is in an upbeat mood and all competing for places.

"Depth brings competition and competition brings boys down to training."

Kirkcaldy – who are three points clear at the top of the table – continue their league bid at second bottom Lasswade this Saturday in a 3pm kick-off.

"My message to the boys is that we can’t be complacent even though we’re top of the table,” Sanft said. “Everyone’s going to come after us.

"We started poorly against Falkirk and then came back into the game.

"And then we went well ahead in the Stew-Mel game but started to relax in the second half thinking we were going to win as we were up by 20-odd points. But they came back and nearly snatched the game from us.”