DUNFERMLINE Rugby Club are ready to "throw the kitchen sink" at attempting to secure a national final appearance this weekend.

Men's first XV head coach Gavin Emerson will lead his players to Castle Douglas to face Stewartry in the last four of the National Shield competition.

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A place in the BT Murrayfield showpiece at the beginning of May awaits the victors, against either East Kilbride or North Berwick, and Emerson is desperate to add a final to their Tennent's Men's Caledonia Region League, Division One, title.

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Whilst he acknowledges it will be a difficult afternoon against a Stewartry side that are second in Tennent's Men's West League, Division One, Emerson says they will travel south with belief following their league success.

"Going into a massive game this weekend, the boys will be in a great position, confidence-wise, to go down to Stewartry," he said.

"Stewartry are a good outfit as well but we've just won a league, so our tails will be up, and we'll be ready to go. There's no second chances here. It's how we get on in that 80 minutes.

"The boys, they've all bought in for each other, and they really believe in the cause. Hopefully we get it and we get another game at it because I don't want the season to finish now. I'm looking forward to it.

"We've secured the higher level of rugby for next season, so I think now, let's just throw the kitchen sink at it and see where we finish.

"Let's just go for it, let's not hold back, and hopefully get another piece of silverware."

Dunfermline have yet to taste defeat on the road this season - their only two losses came at home, to Ellon and Grangemouth Stags, in the league - and Emerson continued: "They're a big unit and they've got some players that have played some really good level of rugby, so we're going to have to pluck away at it for 80 minutes.

"Whether it goes into extra time as well, we've just got to keep working hard.

"That's been the messages since Dalziel (in the quarter-finals); we just need to up our work rate, keep going and just believe in ourselves. The guys are slowly but surely starting to buy into that.

"It's a long time to get that process into you, just trust yourself, we're not going to make the error, stick to our phases because I think, when we first came into Dunfermline, it was like, 'we've got the ball, we need to score, we need to score as quick as we can'.

"Now, the playmakers are starting to believe, no, we'll just wear it down. When we've got the ball, we're in control, and that's why we're getting success in the latter stages of the game these days.

"It's always nice to play another team. They're not in the Caley league, so they don't really know us, we don't really know them, so it is how you perform on the day. Anybody can win, regardless of what league competition you come from.

"It'll be exciting. I probably won't agree with what I've said there on Saturday morning, but it will be exciting!"