The top of BT National League Division 1 is going to be a dog eat dog campaign and when you consider that ‘top’ includes the seven teams between the leaders and into the bottom half, it becomes apparent that this will be a season full of intrigue.
Dundee High Rugby could have done with a bit less intrigue and a bit more endeavour though as they slipped out of fourth spot to seventh as a result of going down 22-13 to league leaders Selkirk at Mayfield.
They trailed 12-3 at the break with only a Harry Miller penalty on the board and although Miller converted Ollie Cain’s second-half try and landed a couple of penalties, the Soutars added to Darren Clapperton and Ewan MacDougall’s first-half tries with a second-half strike from skipper Andy Renwick and Josh Welsh chipped in with a couple of conversions and a penalty.
Despite now being top of the bottom half, Dundee have a played two, won one record and trail Peebles and Stewarts Melville only by points differential and Kelso and Watsonian by a point, indicating just how much of nail-biter this league could turn out to be.
There is little doubt which club is staking an early claim to the BT National League Division 2 title and it would be a foolish man who would bet against Howe of Fife not being in the same top position come the end of the campaign as they are at the moment.
Not only are they leaders by two clear points, wins don’t come much more emphatic than their 108-0 demolition of Greenock Wanderers at Duffus Park, a remarkable scoreline against a side who had lost narrowly to Kirkcaldy the week before.
Only a litany of scorers is required, the democratic nature of Howe being evident in the fact that 12 of the squad got on the scoresheet.
Chris Martin had four tries, debutant Scott Busby two, with one each for Graeme Steedman, Stewart Lathangie, Terry Turpie, Ben Mitchell, Chris Mason, John Lawrie, Alasdair Wilson, Steven Player, Rob Douglas and Dom Martin with Martin having a real off day with the boot, missing all of two conversions out of 14 making his contribution 33 points and helping achieve the perfect symmetry of 54 points in each half.
At Beveridge Park, Kirkcaldy were only two points off the pace against Whitecraigs at half-time, turning round 17-15 down, but they could only add a second Finlay Smith penalty in the second half to his first half penalty and conversion of tries by Dayle Turner and Liam Nielson.
Whitecraigs collected a try bonus with that 30-18 win with scores from a Rob McKeowan double and tries from Nicky Blamire, Ali Stevenson and Jack Winton with Stevenson adding a penalty and Ryan Moffat a conversion.
It was free-flowing, high-scoring and entertaining but eventually the 85-point scorcher at Laigh Bent saw Aberdeenshire come back from Hamilton with only a try bonus for their considerable efforts.
Hamilton had the points pretty well sewn up at the break with a 32-17 lead but Shire didn’t throw in the towel.
The try bonus which could prove invaluable at the end of the season came after two tries from Adam Blake, one each from Wiaan Griebenow and Matt Emmison with Blake adding all four conversions and a penalty to bring up a final 54-31 scoreline.
In BT National 3, Perthshire pulled themselves away from the drop zone with a rattling 36-9 win at Cleland to continue Dalziels’s miserable no-win start to the season. Gus Whittle had a couple of tries, Rory Kelso, Tom Pople and Alex Hatzis had one each with Ed Salter slotting four conversions and a penalty.
That win takes Perthshire up to seventh in the 12-team league but a 49-3 hammering at Hawthornden at the hands of Lasswade leavesy Dunfermline firmly anchored at the bottom of the table.