Building a winning mentality at home is easy it’s doing it on hostile territory that is the stuff of real champions.
Dundee High are still short of translating self-assurance at Mayfield into something they can rely on away from home as they suffered their third away defeat of the season against an excellent Currie side at Malleny Park.
The result was probably right, the margin a little harsh on the visitors, who had contributed much to another illuminating spectacle of Scottish club rugby but left without even a bonus point as Barrie Mansfield’s opportunist late try stretched the scoreline to 37-27.
The lead changed hands six times, each team scoring in 10-point bursts in turn before the spell was broken by a huge midfield hit by former Dougie Fife on Danny Levison of Dundee, springing the ball into Mansfield’s grasp and allowing him an untouched run to the posts for the clincher.
High head coach Ian Rankin’s in-match gripes were down to Currie’s occasional ”no-arms” tackles but he conceded the home side’s continuity and knowledge of how to win were the difference.
”We lacked continuity in fact both sides did because of the penalty count, which must have been astronomical,” he said, High’s official stat accumulator apparently having lost count.
”It’s sad that the game nowadays is geared towards territory and putting pressure on in the hope of gaining penalties. I find myself coaching players how to get in the position to win penalties and it’s not positive, but it’s the way the game’s going.”
Jack Steel, called in after a warm-up injury to Jamie Urquhart, did his job with the results of the penalty count in converting six from seven kicks, hitting the post with the other, but Jamie Forbes was not shabby for the home side, missing only three out of 10.
Andy McLean scored a brilliant solo try for Dundee and Alan Brown supported a sharp piece of opportunism by Richie McIver for the other, but Currie finally had the edge when Ross Weston was on the end of a driving maul.
Dundee’s defence was not as watertight as in their win over Melrose but that was generally down to smart play by Currie, especially in identifying mis-matches from good phase play.
Dundee still have aspirations to be one of those teams that gets into the British and Irish Cup and the meeting with Ayr at Mayfield now takes on vital importance.