Report by Dave Hamilton

Kirkcaldy welcomed Stewart’s Melville to a very wet Beveridge Park with all those gathered hoping for a repeat of the game of two halves served up in Edinburgh earlier this season. Sadly, it was not to be the same fare being served up as both sides struggled to take a real hold of the game.

After 6 minutes the visitors went ahead with a penalty 0-3. Stalemate for a period of time, with neither side looking dangerous, until the 23-minute mark, Rhys Bonner, stepped up again to score a try for the Blues. 5-3.

4 minutes later another conceded penalty made it 5-6 in the visitor's favour. A bit more sustained pressure from the Blues, especially around the area of the scrum, led to another penalty and Fin Smith duly converted for the Blues and it was 8-6 on 36 minutes played.
A converted try for Stewart’s Melville came just before the half ended and the score was 8-13.

The second half began saw little between the sides, despite scrum and line out dominance for the Blues. The question was what were the Blues going to do with the possession being presented to them? The answer came in the shape of Dayle Turner, who got over the try line and then Fin Smith converted to make the score 15-13 for the Blues after 52 minutes.

You are always vulnerable after you score is the old adage, and Stew Mel obliged with a try of their own 3 minutes later and it was change of lead again at 15- 20. On the hour mark, Matt Collins saw a yellow card for the second week in a row and the Blues never wanting to make things easy were reduced to 14 players and had to dig deep once again.

5 minutes later the Blues saw a second yellow card for Dayle Turner, who had voiced his thoughts after being stood on when on the ground.
I refer to last week's observations regarding any talk in the general direction of the referee and yet again the Blues were reduced to 13 players.
Again, the Blues dug deep but were unable to prevent a try from the visitors who sensed the opportunity in front of them making it 15- 25.
Once again, the Blues defended well and got forward and put some pressure on the visitors, with Michael Brooks scoring a try for the Blues. 20-25 after 76 minutes.

Vulnerable again after scoring, the tiring Blues conceded a try right after the restart and it was 20-30 to the visitors with 3 minutes to play.

Final score 20-30, a disappointing afternoon for the Blues, as it seems that all the pre match talk regarding keeping quiet around the referee, has gone unheeded. It’s a smaller squad than we would like, but it’s a resilient one, hopefully a smarter one for the remaining games this season.