Murrayfield’s brand new playing surface was the venue for Dunfermline P6’s opening game of the new season, so new that it had only seen one half of professional rugby before Dunfermline and Dalkeith trooped onto the field at half time in the Edinburgh vs Connacht match.
For the rugby statisticians among you, this new pitch saw its first try in the 40th minute of the above fixture through a Cornell du Preez score in the left hand corner towards the North Stand. Approximately 3 minutes later, the 2nd try on this pitch (and first amateur try) was scored in almost identical circumstances by Brodie Gray, a wonderful finish to some excellent attacking play by Gregor.
The game was a good display of the kind of game this group of players have been working to over the past few seasons – decent shape in attack and defence, and a desire to ship the ball out wide and attack the space. We stood up well to Dalkeith’s big attack runners, always having eager tacklers in the right place to thwart their efforts. Dalkeith pushed hard for tries and came close on at least two occasions, but our players were determined to hold fast. In attack, we managed to run in three more tries through Duncan, Charlie and Mackenzie, and would have had more if we’d had a little more composure to finish off chances – that will come.
The full time whistle came all too quickly (thus ending the first completed match on the new Murrayfield pitch – remember that if the question ever comes up in a future pub quiz), and the players departed to some deserved applause from the crowd.
Team: Andrew, Austin, Brodie, Charlie, Connor, Duncan, Emma, Gregor, Jamie A, Kailo, Kian, Matthew, Mackenzie