Rugby union: Dunfermline defeat Perthshire in National Four

HEAD COACH Gavin Emerson praised his Dunfermline squad for having "rose to the occasion" in winning their final home league match of the season in style.

The McKane Park first XV welcomed already relegated Perthshire for their penultimate National League Division Four encounter on Saturday, and secured a comfortable bonus-point victory.

After defeats to league leaders Garnock, and third-placed Strathmore, it was a welcome victory for Dunfermline, who have secured their place in the league for next season having won promotion from Caledonia Region League Division One last year.

They sit sixth, where they are likely to finish unless Greenock Wanderers, one place behind them, can win their final match of the campaign at Garnock, who will be looking to seal the title and promotion.

Although he had players unavailable for selection, Emerson said: "The guys played really well.

"Perth were struggling - they had a lot of players playing out of position - but the guys rose to the occasion. We were all over them.

"We stuck to our processes and our game plan. Both our wingers scored two tries each, so our game plan was stuck to throughout, and we played some really good rugby. Our set-piece worked really well, especially our lineouts, that gave our backline a real good platform to execute their patterns, so I was really chuffed with the guys.

"We got the bonus point within the first half. All we really needed from the game was a point to then go up to sixth place, because we would've beaten Greenock on our points difference, but to take the five points was great for our last league game at home. It was a good one to finish on."

The result meant that Dunfermline completed a home and away double over Perthshire, who defeated Greenock 47-25 the previous week, after a 27-22 success in September.

"In the past few weeks, we've worked on a lot of the contact elements around the breakdown, around being dominant in the collision, and, the majority of the time, the guys executed on that. That was good to see," Emerson continued.

"We didn't take the foot off the gas. There were a couple of soft tries conceded but, to score 55 points, was unreal for the guys. It's a good confidence boost after the previous two games where we've not really got the results we wanted.

"It was, or could've been, a banana skin given the result Perth had the week before, when they put a score on Greenock. Perth would've had their tails up. They're already relegated so, really for them, it was a nothing to lose game, but a good opportunity to stick one on us.

"The guys performed well.

"We kept going right to the end. I think we got a score right late in the game, where we could've just taken the foot off the gas, saying we've got enough to win, we're comfortable here, but we kept going and kept going."