Peterhead see off tiring Dyce at sunny Catto Park

Report by Rob Haden

Dyce travelled up the coast to Peterhead this Saturday, confident after a much improved showing against Wanderers 2nds where they came close to pulling off their first victory of the season.

The game was played in excellent conditions on a soft pitch.

Dyce started strongly and absorbed some early pressure from the big Peterhead forward pack. The early running went from end to end several times and Dyce were unlucky not to have the first points on the board after being bundled into in touch in both corners by desperate Peterhead defence.

Peterhead answered back with some rampaging runs through the middle, and Dyce were guilty (again) of trying to meet the runners at chest height rather than down at the ankles. Peterhead scored two tries down this middle channel and one in the right hand corner in quick succession. Dyce needed to rally, quickly.

Of the back of a tidy scrum the backs were able to get into the Peterhead 22' and Dyce won a breakdown penalty. The forwards produced clean ball from the subsequent line out and Gregg Jack, filling in at No. 10, ran a switch line and opted to take on the Peterhead line himself, slicing through several defenders to put Dyce on the scoreboard.

Dyce continued to string patches of effective rugby together but still struggled to contain the big ball runners from Peterhead. A few Dyce players took some heavy knocks but with a squad of 16 they soldiered on.

HT Peterhead RFC 21-5 Dyce RFC

Early in the second half Dyce found some territory and managed to stretch the Peterhead defence by playing with some decent width, and after two quick, clean outs and recycled ball Gregg Jack put winger Jack Gray into some space on the right to dot down for Dyce's second try.

Dyce began to tire, and a lack of depth on the bench began to show as the second half wore on. Peterhead scored twice more with some strong ball running and weak Dyce tackling to lead 46 - 10.

Again Dyce fought back and a creaking Dyce scrum came together and rallied to give the backs excellent ball 30 meters out. Daniel MacGregor, slotting in at 10 for the last quarter, ran laterally before straightening, committing 2 Peterhead defenders and freeing his hands to offload to inside centre Rob Haden, leaving him one to beat to score in the left hand corner.

History repeated as Peterhead finished with two quick tries before full time and Dyce travelled back towards Aberdeen knowing that while promising signs are there and they know the way to the try line, there is a lot to work on before taking on Aberdeen University next weekend.

FT: Peterhead RFC 58 - 15 Dyce RFC

MOM: Jack Gray
DOD: Andrew Ferguson