Currie 32 - 32 Dundee HSFP: Duthie inspires Dundee

Last season Currie lost just one league match as they took the competition by the throat and never let go. This year the champions lost their first match at the Greenyards last week and yesterday they were fortunate indeed to escape with a draw against a Dundee side which they dismantled in the corresponding fixture last season.

Dundee coach Ian Rankin summed up the feelings of his side afterwards when he said that they were "bitterly disappointed" with the result, adding that Currie "are well off the boil". He was right on both counts: despite last week's defeat at Melrose, Currie gave the air of a side who thought that turning up was enough against a Dundee side in transition. Just how wrong they were was painfully apparent at the final whistle when Dundee came back from 12 points behind to level the scores and then spent the last few frenetic minutes battering away at the home side's line.

Currie had scored within seconds of the start, fullback Johhny Smith scything through a bevy of non-tacklers to go under the posts.

Nowhere was Currie's approach more starkly illustrated than shortly before half-time. Despite dominating, they only led 10-3, when Dundee's impressively speedy fullback James Fleming outflanked the home defences for the visitors' first try. Instead of serving as a warning, Currie were caught cold just two minutes later when fullback Smith was unaccountably slow to chase up a bouncing ball outside his 22 and was dispossessed by Fraser Clark, the Dundee man flicking the ball to fellow centre Harry Duthie to give an outgunned Dundee a 15-10 lead.

However, on the stroke of half-time Dundee openside Rob Cessford was harshly sin-binned, a moment which Rankin believes turned the game. Although Matt Smith scored a try for the visitors immediately after the break, depleted Dundee also leaked two tries while Cessford was off the park, with centres Matt Scott and James Johnson both going over. When No.8 Ross Weston, who had done a power of carrying throughout the game, scored with 20 minutes remaining to give Currie a 32-20 lead, it looked as if gritty Dundee had finally been broken.

But with centre Duthie slicing through Currie almost at will, the last 15 minutes were one-way traffic.

Indeed, Duthie went over with ten minutes to go, only to be called back when referee James Matthew decided not to play the advantage. The young centre was not to be denied though, and with eight minutes left he scored under the posts. When substitute Jamie Morrison did likewise to level the scores with two minutes left, a remarkable comeback seemed imminent and a Dundee win almost inevitable.

Dundee, though, only realised too late that the vacillating champions were truly on the back foot and were there for the taking. That knowledge meant that the draw pleased no-one.

Currie, however, have plenty to think about before next week's game against away to Heriot's.Currie: Tries: Smith (2), Snedden, Johnston, Weston. Conv: Abercrombie (2). Pens: Abercrombie. Dundee HSFP: Tries: Fleming, Duthie (2), Smith, Morrison. Convs: Fleming (2). Pens: Fleming.

Currie: J Smith; H Abercrombie, J Johnston, M Scott, D Fife; A Binikos, R Snedden; J Cox, F Scott, A Hamilton, R Wilson, A Adam (capt), J Thomson, M Entwhistle, R Weston.

Dundee HSFP: J Fleming; M Smith, H Duthie, F Clark, A Hay; A O'Connor, A Dymock; N Dymock, S Forrest, A Brown, R Hawkins (capt), A Linton, C Cumming, R Cressford, D Levison.

Referee: J Matthew (Stew/Mel).