Mixed fortunes for Dalziel RFC

Nov 16 2011 by Andrew Weston, Wishaw Press

DALZIEL suffered a second straight defeat at the weekend, losing 17-10 to Kirkcaldy.

In a very tight affair. Dalziel started the stronger side but missed an early penalty.

Kirkcaldy then dropped to 14 men after seeing yellow for repeated infringements. But despite their numerical disadvantage, it was the Fife side who managed to strike first, Mark Wallace scoring a try which was converted for a 7-0 lead.

Just minutes from half-time, Dalziel attacked from a 22 drop-out and Lewis Matheson found space to dive over the line, with Robert Simpson adding the extras to bring the sides level.

At the start of the second half, Dalziel had scrum-half Ross Donnachie sin-binned and Kirkcaldy capitalised on their advantage by scoring a pushover try to go 12-7 up. Wallace then scored his second try of the afternoon to stretch the lead to 10 points, but Simpson recorded a late penalty to salvage a losing bonus point for the Motherwell men.

The Second XV, on the back of five straight defeats, put in a commanding performance against Kirkcaldy’s Seconds, scoring 15 tries in a 93-19 demolition.

The fixture was over by half-time, with tries from David Aitken, Eddy Ferguson, Paul White, Darren Moon (2) and Lee McWhinnie – with four successful conversions from centre Scott Johnstone – making it 45-7 with 40 minutes played.

McWhinnie, Fraser McKenzie and Moon went over early in the second to stretch the lead to 62-5, before Kirkcaldy scored their second try.

With less than 10 minutes left, Dalziel turned on the style to score another four tries, Johnstone and Alan Moore getting in on the act and with McWhinnie and Stewart both completing their hat-tricks.

McKenzie and Ferguson both added conversions to take the final score to 93-19.

The Under-18s travelled to Millbrae to play Ayr and were unlucky to lose 29-12. Despite going 5-0 up early on through a Steven Rowe try, Dalziel were unable to hold on and Ayr scored either side of half-time to go 12-5 ahead. Dalziel did score through Euan Watt to level at 12-12, but Ayr proved too strong by scoring a further three tries to take the score to 29-12.

Next week the First XV travel to Ardrossan, while the Seconds travel to Musselburgh. The Third XV are at home to Uddingston Seconds, while the Fourth XV travel to Annan to face their Second XV.