Some are headed for the exit door at Mayfield as the club rugby season starts to head towards a conclusion, but thankfully Dundee HSFP aren’t going away just yet.
Don’t assume that head coach Colin Robertson’s announcement that he will step down at the end of the season and scrum-half Andy Dymock’s impending departure is High throwing in the towel on their chances of promotion from BT National League One. Saturday’s 24-10 victory over Peebles which probably ended the Borderers faint hopes keeps the season very much alive.
It’s still a massively long shot GHA have a 15 point advantage for the second promotion spot, and even if they were to reeled in High have to get around Stewarts Melville and Watsonians. But there’s a never-say-die spirit in this young team that was illustrated clearly by their comeback win over the Tweedsiders.
Down 10-3 at half-time, High leaned on the old staple of their dominating scrummage to turn the match around in the second-half, scoring three unanswered tries and in the end leaving the pitch disappointed they hadn’t got the bonus point.
Robertson’s problem at the moment is not his impending departure but the stop-start nature of the team’s season, meaning that for the second recent game it took well into the second half for his team to get all gears running in sequence.
“We got better again as the game went on and were well on top throughout the second half, and disappointed not to get the fourth try and bonus point,” he said.
“We took a while getting our game going due to lack of games but we played with power and pace throughout the second half with a very strong defence throughout.”
High’s advantage for that second half was that with Gav Robertson now fit after a year’s struggle with injury, the head coach can rotate his three veteran front rowers – Steve Longwell and skipper Alan Brown are the others – so that there’s a freshness allied to their superior technique the opposition simply can’t match for a full 80 minutes.
Such is the power coming for the props that hooker Darrel Russell has been able to get noticeably leaner and fitter this season and is having an excellent campaign about the park, without any detriment to the shove.
“Our scrum again destroyed them giving us a strong platform,” added the coach. “Our front row men were immense and our backs showed plenty flair as the game developed.”
Peebles had the better of the first half, but High’s defence barring one short period of passivity close to half-time that allowed Conor Blyth to score for the visitors kept them at bay.
Perhaps the key was they badly missed ball-carrier Ryan McConnell’s 10 minute absence in the bin when they were on top, the big hooker taking a seat when opting not to use his arms to tackle James Mulligan.
For all that Peebles had plenty beef upfront, however, they were marched back at almost every scrummage in the second half. That provided the field position for Colin Sangster, George Arnott and Brown – oddly his first of the season – to plunder tries against a wilting defence.
The High backs weren’t bystanders in all of this, with Duncan Leese and Ronan Joy showing some bright ideas, while Tim McKavanagh and Matt O’Sullivan bring the force and pace. Adam Lowry, in for Dymock, was lively and has a great service.
But we’ll give this one to the forwards. Another win in the rearranged match against Jed-Forest next week and High can look forward to two big games against Watsonians and Stewarts Melville which will make or break their season.