DUNFERMLINE coach Derek O'Riordan insists his side's stunning win over league leaders Dumfries will mean nothing if they fail to build on it.

The McKane men shocked the previously unbeaten Saints with a determined and well-earned display to register their first win of the season and O'Riordan believes his team are getting to grips with the increased physicality of national league rugby.

He told Press Sport, "We're definitely improving and I think in the first four or five weeks the boys were shocked with the physicality of the league. But we're getting more comfortable with that and are beginning to impose our game on teams. We knew that we were going to come good eventually so I'm really pleased but we need to come back down to earth. A really good performance will mean nothing if we don't back it up against Hawick on Saturday. But we need to be competitive and give them the respect they deserve."

Dunfermline came flying out the traps and opened the scoring inside the opening minute as Zac Zropf broke through the visiting defence and offloaded to David Quarm to score the opening try before Zropf added the conversion.

Although John Carlisle successfully kicked a penalty for Dumfries, Zropf replied and just before the interval the home side increased their lead to 17-3 thanks to a score from Caine McIntyre. The visitors did well to hold up Dunfermline over the line but they went wide from the resulting scrum to score in the corner, with Zropf adding the extras.

Facing a strong wind after half-time, Zropf's kicking game was used to good effect and within two minutes a long kick was collected by Ross Blanchflower to score underneath the posts for a converted try. The home defence held out well and although Jordan Kerr did cross the line for Dumfries - and with O'Riordan in the sin bin - Dunfermline looked the more threatening side and increased their lead when O'Riordan returned to the fray with Caine McIntyre scoring.

Although McIntyre himself was yellow-carded, the home side secured their bonus-point win when McIntyre returned. With minutes left on the clock they scored their bonus point try. Saints went for an up-and-under from their own 22m area. The ball was fielded by Thomas Murray who released McIntyre with a surging run before Graham Hall went over in the corner.