Kirkcaldy Rugby Club skipper Fin Smith's 'most painful career loss' in semi-final

With a coveted first appearance at Murrayfield on the line in the final on Saturday, April 19, the Blues came up agonisingly short as a last minute try saw them lose 22-21 in their home National League Cup semi-final against lower league Hillhead Jordanhill.

“It was a gutting one,” Smith, 30, told the Fife Free Press. “What happened on Saturday is probably the most painful result I’ve experienced in all my years at Kirkcaldy.

"I have experienced one relegation before but I would say this comfortably trumps that to be fair. It was a tough one, but it’s sport I suppose.

"We were 14-0 up at half-time but we had probably butchered about two or three scores, so we could have been a bit more comfortably ahead.

“In the second half it was a little bit like the story of our season I suppose. We put in a lot of good performances but didn’t come out in the first 10 or 15 minutes of the second half.

"We let them back into the game. They played pretty basic but clever rugby, they got back in front and then we gave away too many penalties and made too many small errors.

"Then they scored quite late on like we’ve done a lot this season.

"It was just one of those games. I think there was only a minute left on the clock when they rest after the last try. But we just couldn’t get that last score unfortunately.

"They brought a big crowd with them, the club was full and the game was played in quite good spirits. It would have been a tense one to watch.”

A fine first half for Kirkcaldy in front of a packed crowd in glorious sunshine had earlier seen them register those 14 points without reply courtesy of tries by Rory Brown and Callum Kennedy, both of which were converted by Smith.

But the Arnold Clark National League Division 2 hosts then cracked after the interval as the Glasgow side – currently in second place in Arnold Clark National League Division 3 – battled back to score two converted tries and a penalty to lead 17-14 with a few minutes remaining.

Although Kirkcaldy then showed typical resilience by going ahead once more when Rhys Bonner’s try was converted by Smith, there was late agony for the home team as Hillhead Jordanhill went over in the corner to pinch a one-point success which booked a place against Gordonians in the showpiece final at Scotland’s home of rugby a week on Saturday.

"I spoke to the referee and there was literally a minute on the clock when Hillhead scored their last try,” Smith said. "I think we managed to get possession back for a very short while but a turnover at the end killed it off. They won a penalty and then just kicked it out for full-time.

"Fair play to them. They put in a good second half performance and defended reasonably well and hopefully they go OK in the final. But it’s one where I think we’ll be kicking ourselves for quite a long while.

"But you never know, there might be other opportunities for us in the future with the way the cup’s set up now. In our cup, Nat 2 is the highest level of team in it.

"Getting to play at Murrayfield would have been a great opportunity and a great achievement.

"Obviously a few of the older boys might miss out because they maybe hang up their boots but most of the team are pretty young so they’ve got a good chance doing it again.

"We hadn’t had a cup run for quite a long while previously, as we took it as a development thing to give players a shot.

"But I think after this season there is a bit of hunger for that now. So hopefully going forward we’ll take the cup pretty seriously and get back in the semis next year.”

Kirkcaldy – currently fifth in National 2 with 39 points from 15 fixtures – round off their league season this Saturday at bottom club Preston Lodge in a 3pm kick-off.

Smith said: “We know Preston Lodge need to win to stay in the division so we are expecting a pretty tough game. I hope our boys will just want to get back out, set the record straight after last Saturday and finish the season on a high.”