Back in August, Howe of Fife opened their RBS Championship B campaign with a trip to Riverside and came away having lost 21-15 to Jedforest.
Saturday saw the re-match at Duffus Park and again it was close and again the side on the wrong side of the scoreboard at least came away with a losing bonus. This time, though, it was Howe who took four points in a 19-16 win.
Howe led 10-7 at the break thanks to a Rory Drummond try converted by Dom Martin, who added the penalty which gave them the lead at half-time. Ross Goodfellow’s try had been converted for Jed by Chris Laidlaw.
That was the end of the try scoring and it came down to penalties. With Laidlaw and Martin slotting three apiece, the spoils went to Howe to take them into third spot in the table, three points behind Jed.
They still trail leaders Musselburgh by nine points but have a game in hand. Haddington have been on a bit of a roll and although Kirkcaldy did come away from Neilson Park with a bonus, it was of the losing variety.
There was little in it at the end, Haddington’s three tries to Kirkcaldy’s two proving crucial. Both sides had two first half tries, prop Garry Cockburn and lock Harry Hamilton crossing for Haddington and Chris Mann and Greg Wallace for Kirkcaldy. Nick Bell converted both for the Fife side and Craig Letham slotted one for the visitors.
Letham’s second half penalty for Kirkcaldy was their only score of the half and although Bell missed the conversion of Mike Leggett’s try, his penalty widened the gap and the 22-15 win enabled Haddington to leapfrog Kirkcaldy into fifth spot.
The Borders is not where you want to be going to get your season back on track but the long trip to take on a toiling, second-from-bottom, Hawick YM was one Aberdeenshire embarked on with some hope.
They came away with a 19-17 win after it was all to play for at half-time with the scores tied at 14-14.
Gavin Cunningham converted both Shire’s tries, from Scott Simpson and Mike Erskine, with YM having scored a solitary try from Glynn Desport but three Matthew Douglas penalties kept them in the hunt.
Douglas added another in the second half but it was lock Stuart Crawford’s try which clinched it for Shire, their third win of the campaign taking them up to seventh spot in the table, three points ahead of Lasswade.