Another week of worrying about Covid, injuries and teenage malaise finally culminated in a home Sunday afternoon fixture with Dunfermline RFC, who arrived with just 10 players. In accordance with our approach to getting as many boys on the pitch as possible, Ben Reavey stepped up to prop and Leroy leant us Struan & Aiden from the u16s to bolster the opposition.

As far as a statement of intent goes, Struan immediately took a short ball from the first ruck and managed to run into our Stand-off Logan Shaw, putting him out of the remainder of the game.

The players Dunfermline did bring turned out to be a fairly potent backline, with a clever stand-off, hard running centres and an absolute flyer on the wing, which they did well to bring into the game at every opportunity.

Cartha on the other hand started strongly in the forwards and made good inroads keeping possession for long periods, but getting a little big ragged and loose with it as the phases built up - highlighting the importance of fitness and focus in match situations. Cartha backs taking a line from the forwards and just holding onto the ball for a few steps too many rather than moving it into space to run into, meant that we spurned a number of scoring opportunities whilst gifting the speedy Dunfermline backs too many turnovers, which they converted into tries.

When all's said and done it was a terrific afternoon of rugby for the boys, well officiated by up and coming rugby administrator Ed Crozier (watch this space!).