This encounter was billed as a must win match for both sides. Kinross needing to keep in touch with the middle of the table group of Stirling University, Crieff, Orkney and Madras but with Blairgowrie looking to close the gap on Kinross and make a bid to kick start their season and push for survival in the league.

From the kick-off the game swung in Kinross favour with the forwards  driving and ensuring quick ball recycling to unleash the back and eventually the possession told with a line out and Iain Spence out in the backs a gap opened up and the defence was breached drawing the full back a weighted pass to Duncan Wood who ran in the score to the right of the posts. Gavin Hardie slotted the conversion and the team were showed a level of confidence.

The game then ebbed and flowed up and down the field with some aggressive rucking from Blairgowrie and the continued ability of Kinross to interlink between backs and forwards with slick passing and offloads in the contact.

On the 30 minutes Kinross again running a backs move created space and Gavin Hardie broke the defensive line and offloaded to Iain Spence who galloped in under the posts increasing the Kinross lead to 12 – 0. The game continued to flow and Ian Harley and Mark Thomson having some powerful runs, breaking tackles and delivering good platform to drive forward from.

The first half was marred by an unsavoury hit on the Kinross touch judge which the referee did not deliver the appropriate and right action by just speaking to the offender. This incident rattled the crowd and what had been an average performance from the referee became very one sided as he reacted to the crowd.

The second half kicked off with Kinross driving well in to the Blairgowrie half only to have a fumble and the turn over saw Blairgowrie work their way up the pitch and then 10 minutes of continued pressure on the Kinross line with infringements and 50:50 decisions all going in the favour of the visitors. Eventually the referee yellow carded Ian Barnett for handling in the ruck and within minutes Blairgowrie breached the Kinross defence to score a converted try.

With only 5 points of a difference the game became scrappy and Kinross played territory rugby and firstly Connor Love, then Dale Lamont and finally Ian Harley crossed the Blairgowrie try line but each time the referee disallowing the try or calling the game back to a previous set piece. With 10 minutes to go Kinross were awarded a penalty in front of the posts which was slotted by Gavin Hardie to extend the lead to 8 points and give Kinross the cushion needed to see out the game.

A  spirited performance which saw Kinross as deserved winners 15 – 7 but all players knew they had been in a tough contest with a spirited performance by Blairgowrie. The result does not improve the league position but increases the margin between Garioch and Blairgowrie to 15 and 16 points respectively.

1.       Rab Allan, 2. Gerard Queen, 3. Ian Harley, 4. Ian Barnett, 5. Mark Thomson, 6. Iain Spence, 7. Dale Lamont, 8. George Harley, 9. Liam Carragher, 10. Fraser Ross, 11. Sid MacAulay, 12. Duncan Wood, 13 Brian Weatherup, 14. Kieron Methven, 15. Gavin Hardie, 16. Connor Love, 17. Paul Webster, 18. Craig Watson

Next week sees Kinross head across to Stirling to play the University who currently sit just one point above Kinross in the table.