It’s almost becoming a rite of late summer. Mayfield on Saturday was leafily resplendent and green in the sunshine at least until the last 10 minutes and it was shirtsleeve order.
Once again, a young Dundee HSFP team give or take a few familiar faces enjoyed the sun on their backs by running the ball from all parts, and they opened their new season with a romping 35-17 victory over BT National League One newcomers Marr.
Four tries by half-time had most of the hard-to-please crowd purring, especially as three of them came from eye-catching September rugby.
It seemed every time Andy Dymock moved the ball wide there was acres of space for young fly-half Duncan Leese to send his backs sprinting down the lush paddock.
Head coach Colin Robertson was justifiably pleased with what he saw, even if the second half was a little flat with a poor penalty count and two yellow cards disrupting their pacy game.
“The tempo with which we played was something Marr couldn’t cope with, and that’s a decent side coming off a good run of success,” he pointed out.
“We got lots of ground through the midfield with our pace and some of the stuff we played in the first half was out of the top drawe.”
Yet early season optimism should be properly tempered.
High put Marr to the sword impressively, but although the Troon team may have won four championships on the bounce to reach National One, there’s very little chance they’ll get a fifth.
Also, High under Robertson are going for a homegrown approach this year.
But for the absent Andy Stubbs and Danny Levison, Saturday’s team mixing a few veterans, University recruits and graduates from the High School team is the team for the season; there are no plans to bring in imported augmentations as the season progresses.
The youngsters looked terrific in those fine conditions, but most of the season will be conducted in the glaur where something a little more dogged will be required.
Happily, High may have that as well. The front row of Steve Longwell, Darrel Russell and Alan Brown are well seasoned at rugby in all seasons, and Donald Sangster is a No 8 with an abrasive approach that should work well as the nights draw in.
Dymock is still a threat at all times at scrum-half and Nick Alston looks terrific given the freedom at full-back to come in when he chooses.
But the revelation was Jonny Petty, who has played much of his career as a wing but was a blur of activity at open-side.
“I first coached Jonny when he was 14 and he’s always had that physical side to his game,” said Robertson.
“We talked about it this summer and I felt that this far into his career he would be suited to 7. He was outstanding today, my man-of -the-match, and it was the same in our pre-season.”
Certainly, in the September style of the game, his pace at close quarters can be devastating and Marr’s midfield defence was cut open time and again by him and Dymock working tandem.
The big midfield of Tim McKavanagh and Matt O’Sullivan also punched holes at will and O’Sullivan helped himself to a brace of tries. Wing Ollie Cain, Sangster and school graduate George Arnott scored the others.
Watsonians’ home defeat to GHA was the biggest shock of the opening round of games, but one would still expect them, Stewarts Melville and Aberdeen Grammar to be the biggest threats to High’s advance this season.