More glory for Kirkcaldy Rugby Club at Howe of Fife Sevens

Having previously reached the semi-finals of their own sevens tournament, before winning the Portobello version and landing the Crieff Sevens Plate across the past three weekends, Kirkcaldy won their pool opener in Cupar before losing to a Seabass invitational team, putting them into the Plate semi-finals where they beat a Class of 2004 invitational team, before seeing off Perth in the final at an event which saw the main overall prize won by hosts Howe of Fife.

Playmaker and team captain Finlay Smith was again a key man for Kirkcaldy, with the Blues also particularly well served by the returning Rhys Bonner - the club’s 15s captain – Tim Kennedy and Conar Littlejohn.

Blues head coach Quintan Sanft told the Fife Free Press: "Finlay was again playing well.

“Tim coming back added some speed to the team and Rhys with his ball carrying abilities was also a standout.

“Because we haven’t had sevens for a long time before this year, a lot of boys want to play it.

"The fact that we had a shorter 15s season this year with the way that the structure has been, has allowed a lot of our boys to recover a bit faster from 15s and throw themselves into sevens.”

Kirkcaldy end their run of consecutive sevens tournaments by contesting the Perth version this Saturday, with Smith again set to play but other key men being unavailable for this final hurrah of spring 2024.

Sanft added: “We’ll actually probably have our weakest squad taking part in our last tournament!

"Some of the boys are away on holiday but it will give other guys a run.

"We will still compete well. A lot of the boys are enjoying their sevens at the moment.

"I think a lot of the teams at this tournament will be invitational ones. There’s not many clubs there, which might give us more of a chance. It’s the last tournament so I think most of the boys will enjoy it more and give it their all.”