Falkirk’s stand-off Liam Brims produced a virtuoso performance in the sunshine at Mayfield to ensure his side remained unbeaten and consigned Dundee High to their first loss of the season.
The visitors were clearly the better of the two sides with maximum points from their first two games in BT National League One with complete domination in the scrummage, a regular source of penalties and possession all afternoon.
Behind that solid setpiece Brims was superb both with boot and ball in hand, kicking five penalties and converting all three Falkirk tries.
Dundee’s pack were missing their usual setpiece dominance against a beefy Falkirk eight featuring former Scotland international lock Craig Hamilton, and the home side suffered early blows with Danny Levison and Darrell Russell going off injured in the first 15 minutes.
High were still the more fluent side early on but got nothing for their early grip on territory as a Ewan Fox penalty drifted wide.
Finally Falkirk broke out and made it count with two Brims penalties on 20 and 23 minutes, the second resulting in a yellow card for Tim McKavanagh for a late hit on the stand-off.
A second yellow in as many minutes as Blair Cochrane hit his opposite number in the air left Dundee struggling, and Angus Hamilton capitalised on the open space with a storming run for 35 metres for the opening try, converted by Brims.
However persistent infringement saw Rennie yellow carded for Falkirk and Dundee scored a try with 13 men, Fox’s grubber allowing Isao Matacagi to easily outpace the cover defence and score under the posts.
Brims landed a third penalty after his own brilliant run from halfway to keep his side 16-7 ahead at the break.
Dundee renewed their control in the first ten minutes of the second half and drew to within three points with two fine penalty strikes from Fox, but still couldn’t cope with Falkirk’s strangehold on the setpiece.
The visitors edged their forward forcing penalties at the scrum and Brims landed his fourth to give his side breathing space.
Brims then crowned his impressive performance by creating the decisive try, breaking from his own half and striking a perfectly weighted kick for wing Kyle Rowe to race through and score.
The stand-off added a fifth penalty before Christy O’Donnell got a try back for High from a cross-kick from player-coach Phil Godman.
Dundee went looking for more but instead a fumble near midfield saw Hamilton combine with Rowe to give skipper Harry Russell Falkirk’s third try, converted by Brims.
Dundee High: B Cochrane; I Matacagi, C Bowie, T McKavanagh, F McKay; E Fox, A Dymock; N Dymock, D Russell, J Gibson; R Milne, C Cumming; K Franco, D Turner, D Levison (J Buchanan 8).
Replacements: S Doig, L McLean, J Buchanan, P Godman, C O’Donnell.
Falkirk: M Hall; K Rowe, A Rennie, A Hamilton, J Adamson; L Brims, H Russell; K Burney, K Slade, L Skinner; S McCulloch, C Hamilton; A Inwood, M Mlandonevic, J Eaglesham.
Replacements: A Simpson, S Govan, G Brodie, C Robertson, C Faulds.
Ref: F Brown (Edinburgh RS)
