Kinross R.F.C.

Kinross put in a commendable performance against their National League One opponents in wet and windy Tillicoultry yesterday.

There was a surprise recall to the starting XV for injury-ravaged veteran No.8 Davy Farmer, in what is likely to be his swansong season. Blair Miles came in for his first game at full back whilst Spence moved into the scrum half position in the absence of both Carragher and Fraser. Jim Handyside had made it on to the bench and was itching for a game to make his mark on the 1^st XV one last time before heading off to America.

Kinross started the game playing into a driving wind but still managed to open the scoring after ten minutes. Spence broke blind from a ruck in the Hillfoots 22 and managed to beat his man before releasing Tom Coll to score in the corner. Kinross were more than matching Hillfoots up front but the conditions were making it difficult to retain possession at lineouts and too many scrums were lost against the head giving the home side easy opportunities to clear any danger. The conditions made it difficult to play expansive rugby and there were a number of handling errors made by both teams. Hillfoots managed to respond to the early score with two tries of their own before the break. The first was scored in the left corner and the second came after a five-metre penalty in the opposite corner. However, the lowlights of the half can both be attributed to Ian Barnett. The first coming when he attempted a clearing kick from his own 22 and failed to get the ball in the vicinity of touch and the second when he was yellow carded for blatant offside at a ruck two yards from the Kinross line. Smith came on for Farmer to cover Barnett’s 10 minutes in the sin bin. Unfortunately he was not the only forward to attempt a kick, Farmer’s kick and chase (or stand still and do nothing) in the second half adding further disgrace to the ex-Dunfermline connection. Half time score 10-5.

The start of the second half coincided with the disappearance of the wind and rain, which Kinross were hoping to use to their advantage in the second half. The early stages were fairly even with neither team scoring until Hillfoots were awarded a five-metre penalty which they opted to kick at goal to put themselves two scores clear. After this things started to wrong for Kinross and tired legs meant missed tackles let Hillfoots in for three further unconverted scores. The second half also saw Andrew Smart make an impressive debut replacing Dave Mackay after he had managed to lose both of his contact lenses in a tackle. Other changes saw George Smith replacing Ally Wood with 15 minutes remaining and Jim Handyside taking the place of Rab Allan for the final ten. Kinross managed a late try through Ian "Bull" Harley to make the score line a little more respectable, good forward work seeing Bull bundle over under the posts. The try was beautifully converted by Handyside, scoring what may turn out to be his last ever points for Kinross. Final score 28 – 12.

All in all a decent performance from Kinross against a side three leagues above them. Next week sees us back in league action away to Alloa.

Team: I. Harley, K. Tolson, R. Allan, I. Barnett, A. Wood, M. Thomson, S. Mullan (c), D. Farmer, I. Spence, F. Ross, T. Coll, L. Stobie, I. Buchanan, D. Mackay, B. Miles, Subs: J. Handyside, G. Smith, A. Smart, R. Sharp