The suspicion that the gap between the BT Premiership and the rest of club rugby has become a chasm was largely borne out by the third round National Cup ties at the weekend.
It was National Two side Kirkcaldy that actually got closest to their Premiership opposition, going down by “just” 22 points at home to champions Heriots. No other team outside the Premiership got within 25 points of the elite teams.
Dundee HSFP were far from disgraced losing to Stirling 38-12, but the differences between mid-table in the top league and mid-table in the second tier were all to obvious when both teams ran out to a rainswept Mayfield.
Stirling’s locks and No 8 were bigger than any High forward – no surprise there. But so was the hooker, the tight-head and the blindside. And this was a County team which at as rough estimate was missing 14 players who regarded as first XV calibre.
Without Alan Brown, nursing `flu, and Danny Levison not due to return until next week, it was an undermanned and somewhat callow home forward unit, with two 17-year-olds and the ongoing experiment of Colin Strachan switching from centre to flanker.
Shoved off their own ball at the first scrum, unable to get the ball over the towering County forwards at lineout time, any ball from setpiece was a bonus for the home side. The credit was they did so much with so little.
They even had County players and followers scratching their heads when Andy Dymock read a pass from Ross Jones and raced 70 metres – just holding wing Logan Trotter at bay – for an equalising score as the first quarter ended. The visitors quite rightly wondered how they were level having barely given up the ball for the entire 20 minutes.
Tenacious defence, which kept right up until the end, and a very decent midfield unit of Dymock, Euan Fox, Jack Broadley and Duncan Leese gave High fans and director of coaching Colin Sangster something to be optimistic about.
They made far more linebreaks than County over the piece, only too often the man sprung was in isolation and the support didn’t always get to hand. When it did, Jonny Gibson scored a fine second try for the home side just before half-time.
But by then County’s pack had a stranglehold, with even the best bit of wing play coming from No 8 Ruaridh Leishman, who showed a startling turn of pace for a one-time lock down the south touchline for his try.
County had three tries in the first half, all converted by centre Jonny Hope, and two more early in the second half meant the game was safe. Three of them came by way of driven mauls, which although frustrating to High followers was exactly the right tactic for the game and for the horrible conditions.
Dundee deserved something more for their valiant efforts but in the end Jones finished a breakaway try for County in the dying minutes to pad out the score.
But there is optimism for High on the back of this. The setpiece will improve when the size gap isn’t so huge against other National League sides, and there should be genuine hope that they have a decent set of backs.
Fox, finally recalled from pointlessly sitting on the bench for Heriots, is bright and inventive with great feet, Leese has always looked a fine player and Jack Broadley, now free of injury, is an imposing inside centre.
Fraser McKay, who filled in at 10 while Fox and Leese were absent, had a good game at full back and seems to have too much about him to stick on the wing when Blair Cochrane returns.
In the forwards, the Strachan experiment is certainly worth pursuing, not least because of the extra bulk he brings. George Arnott was once again High’s outstanding forward; how they could do with finding a big lock to allow him to play at No 8.
