Kirkcaldy Rugby Club skipper Fin Smith delighted to make it four wins out of four

Long serving Fin Smith is loving being Kirkcaldy Rugby Club captain (Pic by Michael Booth)Long serving Fin Smith is loving being Kirkcaldy Rugby Club captain (Pic by Michael Booth)
Long serving Fin Smith is loving being Kirkcaldy Rugby Club captain (Pic by Michael Booth)
After yet another thrilling victory – 31-30 at Lasswade last Saturday – made it four wins out of four for leaders Kirkcaldy in National 2 this season, club captain Fin Smith stressed his happiness that the Blues are ditching their ‘dull to watch’ stereotype in spectacular style.

Trailing 20-7 at one stage early in the second half and later having Craig Hamilton yellow carded for collapsing the maul and conceding a penalty try, Kirkcaldy ultimately came out on top on a day when their points came via tries for Rory Brown (2), Matt Collins and Connor Wood, plus four conversions and a last gasp penalty by skipper Smith.

“The great start has probably surpassed expectations,” Kirkcaldy-born Smith, 29, told the Fife Free Press. “The goal previously – and still is to be honest – was just to secure our spot in the division this year. Only one team goes up and two are relegated.

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"Four wins from four has been a better start than we could have dreamed of but at the same time I’m not overly surprised just from the work that’s gone on at the club, the training and the squad we’ve got.

"It’s been a rollercoaster ride this season which we could probably do without but it’s been good.

"Kirkcaldy have probably had this stigma over the past 10 years that we play pretty dull rugby, forward orientated.

"But this year we’ve been playing great rugby, have a good set of backs, good set of forwards and everybody’s linking up well.

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"The games have probably been closer than I would like them to be but we are getting over the line so that’s all that counts.

"I’m really enjoying being captain of a club I’ve been at since early primary school essentially.

"Taking my winning penalty, I was just trying to take the pressure out the situation and enjoy it. It was exciting for me to step up and potentially win the game for the boys.

"I had just missed one a few minutes before, the first miss of the match, so it was good to get a chance to recover from that as well.”

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When asked what head coach Quintan Sanft said to his players at half-time when the Blues were trailing, Smith added: “Quinny essentially calmed us down, told us that we need to build some phases, keep the ball and just get into a rhythm.

"But we came out at the start of the second half and probably didn’t do that! It took going down an extra score to get boys in line with each other and crack on.

“Craig being yellow carded was a bit of a nightmare. We had struggled at defensive lineouts all day so I wasn’t surprised to see it happen, they were quite strong there.

"But our game plan didn’t change. We knew we were still good when we had the ball and backed the system that we had. We knew what they were going to throw at us so it was easy enough to handle with 14 men.

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"We stuck with the same system, played some smart rugby and it paid off.

Kirkcaldy, whose 20-point haul has them four ahead of second-placed Falkirk, continue their league campaign at home to bottom club Newton Stewart this Saturday with kick-off at 3pm.

Smith added: "I think there always is a danger of complacency, it’s something that we’re aware of.

"But at the same time Newton Stewart have been a bit of a bogey team for us for the last few years, we always tend to struggle against them.

"So I’m confident there won’t be any complacency this weekend and fully expect it will be another difficult game that could go down to the wire.”

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