Going into the final round of matches, they needed to beat opponents Stewarts Melville’s third XV by 63 more points than league leaders Heriot’s third XV defeated Preston Lodge second XV by.

Unaware of events involving their rivals, Dunfermline pushed on to record a crushing 106-5 win and, with Heriot’s only able to beat Preston Lodge 44-10, they leapt to the top of the table and clinched the championship on a points-scored difference of just seven.

Team manager David Hume said, “We knew that we had an outside chance but we didn’t intend to win the league – promotion was our main goal but this is a ‘Brucie Bonus’. We scored around 20 tries and given the way we played in the first half, it was hard to keep that going but the boys pushed on and worked their socks off.

“We’ve got a fantastic team with a good mix of youth and one or two who have played for the firsts and seconds over the years and all of our backs are under 22 apart from one older guy.

“They’ve taken it in their stride and while it’s easy to focus on the doom and gloom of the relegation of the first team, we have a youth structure that is the envy of a lot of clubs in Scotland which will be beneficial to the club as a whole.”