Dunfermline Press | Sport | Gala's day as Dunfermline gift visitors the points

Tuesday, 6th January, 2009

Published: Thursday, 7th February, 2008 13:50

Gala's day as Dunfermline gift visitors the points

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Dunfermline 15 Gala 26

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Scott Swankie drives through the McKane Park mud

Pic by: Dunfermline Press

DUNFERMLINE Rugby Club were punished for failing to turn possession into points in the McKane Park mud on Saturday.

Missing Stevie McColl and Neale Patrick, who were on Scotland duty with the under-20s against France, the home side started the game well and enjoyed the lion’s share of possession in the opening 20 minutes.

Despite playing some attractive rugby, they couldn’t make their superiority count and they ended up on their own line after a couple of set piece disasters.

Gala drove over from a scrum to score the first try, which was converted for a 7-0 lead. Then a knock-on resulted in an interception two minutes later to gift the visitors a simple second try for a 14-0 lead.

Undeterred, Dunfermline continued to take the game to their opponents and a spell of pressure was rewarded when Ali O’Connor, on kicking duty in place of McColl, scored a penalty for 14-3.

But the game took a decisive turn on the stroke of half-time when Gala scored a third try thanks to some poor Dunfermline defending, presenting the visitors with a 21-3 interval lead.

Mirroring the start of the first half, Dunfermline again came out positively at the start of the second period and were rewarded with a try by Johnny Smart, converted by O’Connor, to bring the score back to 21-10.

Dunfermline were on top now and probed for the breakthrough that could have seen them go on to win the game but they couldn’t get close enough to land more points.

Gala broke away to seal the match with a fourth try to make it 26-10 and although Dunfermline hit back to score a second try through Sky Laurie, they couldn’t force another score that would have given them losing bonus points.

Coach Phil Smith told Press Sport, “In many respects we actually played a lot of good stuff in conditions which were like glue but we gave away three soft scores in the first half and we just couldn’t recover from that, which was unfortunate.”

Dunfermline’s under-15s are one game from Murrayfield. The side face Hawick on Sunday in a bid to reach the semi-finals of the national cup.

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