Peebles 26

Kirkcaldy 21

Allan Beveridge at The Gytes

It's a funny old game.

In the first half of this league game at the Gytes the home fans were excited as their team scored four tries and picked up the all important bonus point. Now, if the first half was exciting, the second half was nail biting.

Peebles got the score to 26-0 before the Fifers clawed their way back into contention as they scored 21 unanswered points.

Peebles kicked off playing away from the town against a Kirkcaldy team four places below them in the league.

The visitors had brought a big set of forwards, with one prop in particular being huge.

It was expected that their front row would give the Peebles men a difficult afternoon but to be fair Togia, McConnell and Menzies appeared to win the battle of the set scrums and they were certainly more mobile.

The Kirkcaldy hooker, Wallace did give a man of the match performance and he himself scored two second half tries.

The home team had a good chance after only three minutes, involving a good passage of play between forwards and backs, but the last pass on the Kirkcaldy line was spilled and the visitors cleared their lines.

Another dropped pass in the 7th minute saw another scoring opportunity go a begging.

But at least the opportunities were coming the way of the home team.

In the 13th minute Rohan Maciver, who for this scribe was the Peebles man of the match, had a great break out from his own 22.

He dribbled the ball into the visitors' half and picked it up only to be caught by the defence when another long kick may have been a good alternative. Maciver continued to be a thorn in the Kirkcaldy side for most of this game, both in defence and in attack.

It was half way through the first period before Peebles managed to open their account .

The forwards were pressing the Kirkcaldy line and had several drives before captain Donald Anderson took the ball from a maul and side stepped his way through the defence to score under the post. Greg Raeburn converted.

Peebles doubled the score five minutes later when Scott Stoddart held onto a pass from Callum Anderson after more good work from brother Donald. Raeburn again converted for14-0.

Scott Stoddart scored his second eight minutes into the second half.

Martin Cruikshank had a big part to play in this try, he fielded the ball on his own 22 and made ground up the touchline.

He was tackled and the ball recycled and given again to Cruikshank who gave a good pass to Scott Stoddart who outpaced the defence.

Raeburn's conversion attempt hit the upright.

Murray Johnston had replaced Donald Anderson at scrum half, and the 25-year-old salesman from Edinburgh, who recently moved from Boroughmuir, threw a long pass for Ross Brown to set up a ruck.

Andrew Muir took the ball on to 15 metres from the visitors line before being brought to ground and the ball recycled. Johnston passed to Raeburn who weaved his way through the defence to score under the posts. He converted his own try for 26-0.

From this strong position and both forwards and backs playing well Peebles seemed to think they had the game won.

Kirkcaldy fought their way into the competition, scoring three tries.

In the end Peebles were quite pleased to hear the final whistle and get the all important league points.

Tonight (Friday) with the league being rested for the autumn internationals, Peebles are away in Border League action at Hawick hoping to catch the Greens, who are not having their best ever season, on the hop.