Second-half Kelso surge prevents heavier defeat

Dundee’s need for the points was greater than Kelso’s, as the evidence showed in this late-season battle – also Kelso’s last away

game of the season.

During this 11-try extravaganza, as at Twickenham the previous week, it looked as if the home side would run up a hugely embarrassing score.

The first half was one of total dominance by Dundee, with an early penalty by Fraser McKay being

followed by tries by Ross Aitken, Stuart Barlow, Lewis McNamara and Andrew Hamilton. McKay

added the conversions to all but the third of these.

So there we were at 29-0 before Kelso bothered the scoreboard but a try by Matt Kindness, converted by Craig Dods, narrowed the gap, only for McKay to kick a penalty to take the score to 32-7 at the interval.

The second period started with yet another Dundee try by Stewart Lathangie, with McKay

converting again.

There followed a fight back by Kelso, with Angus Common grabbing a couple of tries, before the Taysiders completed their scoring, with Kieran D’Aeth’s try and Mackay’s fifth conversion.

A couple of yellow cards against Dundee players helped Kelso’s cause and tries by Cammy Brown,

converted by Dods, and replacement, Gregor Miller, added a level of respectability to the scoreline and a

bonus point to Kelso’s league points.

Kelso are not mathematically out of the woods yet but there would have to be some strange results at

the bottom to prevent them playing in National 1 rugby next season.

Two home games are still to come, against Jed-Forest and Cartha QP.

There is also the little matter of a National Cup semi-final to be played this Saturday against Aberdeen

Rugby, just to make the fixture card a bit more congested.

Kelso: Murray Hastie, Mark Wilson, Gregor Mein, Matt Kindness, Arran Jackson, Craig Dods, Phil

Hume, Gareth Clark, Michael Downer, Blair Robertson, Alex Thompson, Angus Common, Kevin Dryden,

Cammy Brown, Kevin Wilson. Replacements: David Leitch, Kris Mein, Tony Wichary, Gregor Miller, Craig Bruce.