Published: Thursday, 21st May, 2009 9:50am

Dunfermline ready to tackle Scottish rugby's biggest names

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DUNFERMLINE are back at the heart of Scottish rugby after finally clinching promotion to Premier Division 2 of the national league.

And ambitious coach Phil Smith says the club"s rise needn"t stop there.

He told Press Sport, 'The main thing for the club is it"s hugely exciting as we"ve never been this high in the Premier leagues before.

'We"ve now put ourselves in a league where we will be playing against traditional rugby clubs such as Hawick in the league as they"ve just been relegated from Premier 1. There"s also Gala, Jed Forest, Kelso. They"re all Borders teams but they are the lifeblood of Scottish rugby in some respects so it"s good that the players have got the chance to go to Mansfield Park and play their rugby.

'That"s the exciting part but we mustn"t get too excited because we want to get up again and with a bit of luck and if we stay injury-free, we are capable of doing that.

'We play better against better rugby teams because they try to play better rugby and you get a far better game and that"s what we"re good at.

We were undoubtedly the best rugby team in the league last season. The top four were fairly clear of the other sides and we won five out of six games played against the others in the top four. The difficulties we had were against the lower teams and when we had to step up, we did it.

'Winning promotion should not be a shock to the system. We are good enough.'

Smith is hopeful that the club"s rise in status should attract better players to McKane Park although the coach isn"t looking to make sweeping changes.

'There are maybe two or three positions I would like to fill to strengthen the squad,' he said, 'and we will look at local people to do that. There are local guys who are with other clubs who left to fulfil their ambitions but they could potentially fulfil their ambitions with this club now.'