By Dave Hamilton

Kirkcaldy welcomed Berwick to Beveridge Park on a cold but bright afternoon, with Berwick in decent form and the home side looking to improve on recent performances.

A typically slow start for the home side resulted in a converted try after barely two minutes of play to make it 0-7. Some competitive and combative tackling from the Blues forced a free kick which Finlay Smith placed nicely for a Blues lineout in a promising position. The resulting lineout provided good possession for the home side but unfortunately, they were forced into touch.

The first scrum of the day resulted in a rather harsh penalty for the visitors after the bind was lost following a slip by Matt Collins. Berwick kicked for lineout position, and this produced an unconverted try out wide making the score 0-12.
There was some good defensive work by the Blues at this point in the match and again the break of the ball went the visitor’s way, and another try was conceded as the Blues must have wondered when they would get some joy out of the game as the lead for the visitors stretched to 0-19 after 21 minutes.

Despite the scoreline the Blues were very much in the game and some great work by Jack Denton and Rhys Bonner gained ground and eventually forced Berwick into conceding a lineout around 15m out. Step up Craig Hamilton on his return from injury to launch a lineout throw beyond the tail of the pack for Rhys Bonner to charge onto and brush aside the defenders to score his first try of the day. The try was unconverted, and the score was 5- 19 at the 23-minute mark. Again, some good solid lineout and scrum activity suggested that the Blues had found a way into the game and an attacking platform that had been lacking recently was evident.

Then typically as the half hour mark approached, a speculative kick forward for Berwick had a very fortunate bounce putting one of their centres through to score a converted try, very much against the run of play bringing the score to 5-26. Owen Bonner, who came off the bench last week and impressed with his direct approach was introduced on the wing at the 35-minute mark to assist in taking the game to Berwick at the lead up to half time.

Some more solid scrummaging from the Blues pack forced a scrum penalty and set the tone of these contests for the remainder of the match.
Berwick picked up a yellow card and were fortunate not to have a second when one of their players deliberately and unnecessarily blocked the path of the ball when the Blues were building an attack.

H.T. 5-26 and the visitors must have been fancying their chances going into the second half as although Kirkcaldy were playing reasonably well and providing the backs with decent ball, they were leading on the scoreboard following their positive opening period of the game.

Following some words of wisdom at half time the Blues started the second half with real purpose and following a well worked lineout, Owen Bonner drove forward and provided a scoring opportunity for Connor Littlejohn who saw the move through to score for the Blues. 10-26.
Berwick hit back almost immediately when their no.14 showed some genuine pace to race through and score out wide bringing the score to 10-31. A change in the front Row with Ross Lithgow coming on to add his experience and presence to the front row.

Another decent lineout move led to good midfield possession and control and Rhys Bonner once more scoring between the posts, Fin Smith duly converted, and it was 17-31. The powerful scrum led to good game management from Fin Smith who once more placed the ball into touch for a lineout in a threatening position. Another efficient lineout ensued and resulted in Rhys Bonnar grabbing his hat trick of tries, converted by Fin Smith to bring the score to 24-31 and it was game on.

Some more good direct work from Owen Bonner and the Kennedy twins piled the pressure on to the visitors and the Blues were awarded a scrum on the Berwick 5m line, the Blues pack smelt blood at this point, they did what they do in these situations allowing Rory Brown to pick and go and score near to the posts. Try converted by Fin Smith and suddenly it was 31-31. The Blues were relentless at this point and the backs started to spread the game from side to side and ultimately Kieran Mitchell scored out wide to put the Blues in front for the first time in the match, 36-31.

A yellow card for the Berwick no.3 followed and they were reduced to 14 players and the decision to go uncontested at scrums was made by Berwick and considering they had had a torrid afternoon it was surprising that they hadn’t done so earlier. The first uncontested scrum led to a Blues try for Conar Littlejohn who helped himself to his second try of the day, duly converted by Fin Smith and it was 43-31.The Blues had their tails up now and some fine work from Rory Brown led to a try for Callum Kennedy which was also converted by Fin Smith bringing the score to 50-31.

Kieran Mitchell received a yellow card for repeated offside offences and it was briefly 14 players a side until the visitor were restored to 15 players, Berwick came again with the extra player advantage and some great defensive work on the try line repelled their efforts.

Final Score 50-31, plenty to be positive about after a slow start for the Blues, a Captains performance from Rhys Bonner, some positive attacking backs play and an impressive display from the pack to provide sound attacking opportunities led to a far better afternoon for the Blues.