Report by Gregg Jack
Photos by Tracie Coutts

Dyce welcomed Inverness Craig Dunain RFC for the return match between the sides this season in the Tennant's Caledonia League 4 North. After a tough battle between the sides, Dyce came away with the big W to do the double over Dunain in the early part of the season.

In overcast and chilly conditions Dyce received the KO and began building the phases and exerting early pressure uphill against the visitors. After drawing a couple of early penalties, Captain David Hay opted to bag an early three points from the tee smack in front of the posts on the 10 minute mark.

From the resulting restart the ball was turned over out of a tackle after several Dyce phases moving the ball edge to edge going forward. ICD capitalised on the field position and the scattered Dyce defence to score in under the posts.

After 15 mins Dyce found themselves in the Inverness 22 through a solid platform of set pieces. With the ICD scrum turned to toast, the backs had great ball all afternoon. With #10 David Hay moving the ball all over the shop, space opened up for Dyce’s #12 Gregg Jack to hand off his opposite number on the 5 sitting him down clearing his route across the try line. An easy conversion saw Dyce stretch their lead to five points.

Game on!

Dyce played themselves back in and around the visitors’ 22 after some quick hands from Gregg Jack and Declan Coutts in the centres. The Dyce pack bossed the scrum all afternoon, and with the ball exiting the back of the ICD scrum an alert Callum Robertson (SNAP Sponsorship) picked up the loose ball, fending off the ICD blindside flanker in the process. Whilst escaping the defender he managed to go over the try line with ease followed by the over the dead ball (also with ease)! Yup DotD no.1…

Dyce went down to 14 men on the 25 minute mark after number 8 Phil Horsfall earned himself a yellow after infringing with his feet the break down. The pressure on Craig Dunain was relieved for the time being although Dyce managed to maintain composure and see out the clock without further worries despite being a man light. Dyce came out flying again when back up to a full complement working pods well. Moving the ball edge to edge manufactured room for Jack Gray to go 1 on 1 with the 15 which he rounded before being tackled into touch by the cover defence.

After the initial flurry of excitement, the end of the half was comfortably contained by the hosts and ended without further score.

HT: Dyce RFC 10 – 5 Inverness Craig Dunain RFC

Dyce took the kick off downhill and with the wind to start the second half and were able to quickly win back possession. With the ball being moved quickly again through the hands, space for the centres was gobbled up with Dyce camped deep in ICD territory. A lineout from a penalty conceded by ICD was throwing up all kinds of smoke as the Dyce pack bamboozled the visitors with a cheeky lineout routine which saw Graeme Lowe take the ball at the front of the lineout and offload to the thrower Callum Robertson. Eager to make up for his earlier clanger, he buried under the winger and scrum half to score wide on the right from all of 3 meters. The relief on his face was matched only by his voice; “I’m not going to lie, that’s a weight off my mind”! The conversion was missed from out wide.

With blood in the water and fire in the Dyce bellies (there are plenty of them…), the home team roared back into attacking action straight from the kick off with the players keen to press home their set piece advantage and ferocity at the breakdown.

With Inverness struggling to get and hold down any kind of possession in the second half, infringements were common. A Dyce penalty in front of the posts 5m out led to a quick tap; Graeme Lowe smashed his way over the whitewash to bag his first try of the match.

With the Dyce Scrum dominant a series of reset scrummages caused by the wilting ICD pack went unpunished by the referee. Numerous times Dyce crossed the try line only to be judged to have been held up or tries not awarded; no.8 Phil Horsfall from the back of a scrum 5m out; winger Edmund Barnard out wide after leaving two defenders in his wake & Callum Robertson burying under more bodies from close range after sniping around the fringes. A yellow card for the visitors was shown for repeated infringements at the breakdown with Dyce turning the screw when searching for their try bonus point. On another day the four efforts could have been added to the scoreboard to reflect the dominant performance from the home side. Dyce ended up in the ICD half for a while gaining ground when a gap opened up for Jack and Coutts, again linking well in midfield to feed winger Alessandro Rossetti only for him to be bundled into touch in the corner on his Dyce debut.

Dyce’s fourth try came courtesy of try machine Graeme Lowe, who added his second of the match under the posts after being fed directly of fly half David Hay. Crashing through the defence he collected two players on-route to crossing the try line. Captain Hay added the easy extras.

With the bonus point win sealed Dyce enjoyed the final quarter of the match with more attacking rugby; seemingly everybody wanted on the scoreboard!

A cheap shot at the back of the ruck on substitute & stand in scrum half Jack Munro in the closing stages led to Gregg Jack retaliating and in doing so netted himself a yellow card. With words exchanged with referee the yellow was upgraded to red! No one was more disappointed than himself as Dyce saw themselves regain their mettle and work hard to make up for the player deficit. Adam Watt moved to centre with 5 minutes to go and bossed their outside centre then winger in 1 mad run. The makeshift centre found himself back on the ball following a beauty of an offload and wrap around with Edmund Barnard to score in the corner with the last play of the game.

FT: Dyce RFC 36 – 5 Inverness Craig Dunain RFC

MotM: Declan Coutts
DotD: Callum Robertson (SNAP Sponsorship)

With AWRFC 2XV withdrawn from the league, this is likely to be the club’s last game in 2018. If so we hope everyone has a great festive break and we’ll catch you back in the New Year for more rugby action in 2019!

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