Dundee HSFP 15 - 12 Gala: Scrappy affair edged by Dundee

The sun shone, the wind was a breeze and a large crowd enjoyed the spring weather at Mayfield but sadly the rugby did not quite live up to the near perfect conditions. It was a scrappy affair with the breakdowns a free-for-all.

Gala looked to have stolen the victory with a try in the final ten minutes, having trailed for much of the match. Dundee had been in cruise control but they finally woke from their slumbers, threw caution to the wind, gave the ball some width and their enterprise was rewarded when winger Andrew McLean touched down in the right hand corner.

Gala supporters were arguing that the big winger put his foot on the touchline but the assistant referee was well-placed and thought otherwise.

Dundee won enough ball to win this match twice over but the visitors are scrappers, especially scrum-half George Graham, who was almost as big a nuisance on the pitch as his father (and Gala coach) was on the sidelines. The match was barely 20 minutes old when the referee was warning Graham senior about his angry interjections.

Dundee owed their early lead to Scotland sevens international James Fleming who grabbed two first half tries, but the winger was unable to make either of the tricky conversions. Fleming is the Billy Whizz of Scottish club rugby so Gala were untroubled when the winger got the ball five metres out with three big men to beat and no space to work in. To the visitors’ dismay the speedster put his head down and muscled his way to the line without ceremony.

Not long after, the winger scored a more traditional try from about the same distance, only this time he had just the one man to beat and when Fleming has five inches to work with he will always take five yards.

In between these two touchdowns Gala grabbed the best try of the afternoon and again Graham junior was heavily involved. Centre Alan Emond made the initial break before finding the little scrum-half to carry the move on. Graham was collared but he popped the ball off the floor and Emond was on hand to finish off the move he had started.

The second half almost started with another Dundee try when No 8 Danny Levison charged down a clearance kick but, after consulting with his linesman, the referee decided that the defender got the first touch.

The second half was played out in the middle of the field. Harry Duthie made a couple of breaks for Dundee and Gala maybe had a half chance up the left flank but, just when it looked like being a pointless 40 minutes, Opeta Palepoi had other ideas.

The ageing islander was last man up when the Gala pack drove over from a five metre lineout. Miller kicked the conversion clean between the posts to give his side a brief lead but McLean struck at the death to keep Dundee at the head of the chasing pack.