Dundee HSFP’s handsome win over RBS National League leaders Boroughmuir at Mayfield on Saturday didn’t actually change much on paper.
By virtue of the other three teams above them in the division also winning, High remain in fifth place, three spots out of the promotion play-off.
Boroughmuir, although second best in almost all aspects on Saturday, still have an 11-point advantage at the top as a result of escaping Mayfield with a bonus point for four tries.
But the real difference was in the way that the High team carried themselves before, during and especially after their 32-20 victory. Whatever the league table says, there is now real belief that they are the form side in the division and that promotion is attainable.
It’s based on the way they handed Boroughmuir only the second and easily the heaviest defeat of their season, and the purposeful way the team finally, probably the best XV the club have at their disposal executed the gameplan.
“There’s a real pride for me as a coach to see the way the team played today,” said coach Colin Robertson, unhesitatingly describing the performance as the best since he took over at the start of the season.
“We were good in all aspects and I think we played some really good rugby especially into the wind in the first half. To turn around with the wind at our backs 19-5 ahead was testament to that.”
Boroughmuir’s only defeat so far this year had come in a deluge to Stewarts Melville, and conditions looked ideal for their fast-running game, but that reckoned without the new resolve of the home side.
The purpose and belief didn’t even waver after a sticky start that saw skipper Alan Brown somewhat harshly sin-binned five minutes into the match. Quite what possessed Muir scrum-half Jonny Adams to feed a five metre scrum to the feet of his second row with his pack a man to the good no-one will quite understand, but it got High off the hook and they seized the chance.
Up the other end they went through a neat kick from Bryce Hosie and the first of several thunderous runs by Richie McIver, and a driving maul saw the ever-industrious Chris Cumming rewarded with a try.
That score “against the sin-bin” set the stall out for the match. Muir did respond with an equalising try but in a half-hour spell either side of half-time they looked almost lost, losing four more tries and barely able to hang on to the ball.
Calum Bowie bagged his sixth try of the season with a neat change of direction, but Hosie’s solo score, wind-assisted but not in the orthodox way, was the pick.
The full-back’s chip and chases have already won him Scottish Rugby’s try of the month for September but this one was slightly different, what looked like a clearance kick to touch catching the wind, drifting away from Boroughmuir defenders and straight back to the New Zealander, who saw the field open up for him and hared 60 metres to score with one sidestep for the last defender.
If that was one to Hosie’s now-lengthy highlight reel, the two in the second half both belonged to Nick Alston.
The former Dollar and Heriot’s centre’s first was a simple run-in after the pack had sucked in multiple defenders but the second showed a real change of pace from a standing start as a yawning gap opened in the visitors’ defence.
It was an outstanding, all-round team performance that bodes well for the season run-in, with the other three promotion contenders still to come to Mayfield, where High have now won seven-in-a-row.