Tennent's Caledonia Region League, Division One:

Orkney 29 Dunfermline 5

DUNFERMLINE captain Cameron Dunn believes that the margin of his team's first defeat of the season didn't tell the full story of their trip to Orkney.

The McKane Park men made the long trip north on Saturday after recording two wins from their first two games but, despite a close and highly-competitive opening period, the hosts ran in four tries for a bonus-point victory.

Dunn felt that Orkney – playing their first league game at home since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic – were more clinical than his side, who fielded four players making their debut.

Such was the competitiveness of the match, it was five minutes before half-time before the first points were put on the scoreboard, which came through home captain Scott Rendall's converted try.

Shortly after the interval, Connor Hancock kicked a penalty to increase the lead to 10-0, before Dunfermline's Matthew Wilson was shown a yellow card and sent to the sin bin.

Although the visitors' Lewis Cumming crossed for a well-worked score, tries either side from Chris Guthrie and Niall Campbell decided the match in Orkney's favour.

Dunn said: "It wasn't what we wanted and I don't think the scoreline really does reflect the way the game went.

"It was 0-0 for about half an hour; the first half was really tense. There was two tries they did score that just came off of one person's error, and it was crucial for them that they managed to score off those, as opposed to just them getting the ball or making a few yards off it.

"They were more clinical than we were. They ran hard and backed themselves with the physicality. They didn't kick too much either, not in the first half anyway. They wanted to play from all areas of the pitch which is something no other team we've played had really done.

"We were quite surprised by how deep they wanted to play from. I think that caught us off guard initially at least. Defensively, we had to put a good effort in. There was no lack of fight."

The first XV will hope to return to winning ways on Saturday when they travel to Aberdeen Wanderers.

Meanwhile, in Caledonia Midlands Region League Division Three, Rosyth Sharks and Dunfermline's second XV both went down to home defeats.

Sharks suffered their third defeat from as many games by 48-21 against Grangemouth Stags second XV, with Dunfermline losing 38-31 to Dundee Rugby Club.

In Division Four, Dunfermline's third XV did claim victory, winning at Hillfoots second XV 38-21 ahead of their trip to Stobswell on Saturday.

Rosyth Sharks go to Bannockburn, while Dunfermline's seconds are at Grangemouth Stags seconds. All matches kick-off at 3pm.