Rosyth Sharks 17 Bannockburn 30, Caledonia Midlands Region League, Division Three

ROSYTH SHARKS hope to end their league season on a high and seal third place after losing out to second top Bannockburn.

The Harley Street outfit, whose win over Perthshire second XV last time out was confirmed by Scottish Rugby as having been played as a 'double header', went down by a 13 point margin.

It was much tighter than the previous meeting between the teams this season, when Bannockburn won 46-7 at home on the opening weekend, despite Rosyth being shorn of several regular players.

Head coach, Mark Love, told Press Sport: "As you can imagine we're disappointed with the loss, however, we were missing eight of our normal starting 15, including our captain and regular number 10.

"We still put out a full (squad of) 22, with a few of our older players stepping up to help out.

"We went in at half time only a point down at 12-13 - two tries and one conversion for us, and a converted try and two penalties for them - which was ok as we had been playing into the wind. We did have a couple of chances go begging due to a bit of indecision.

"Second half we started well, with a close first 10 minutes, but Bannockburn scored through a try against the run of play and a forward pass. We then lost a man to the (sin) bin, giving them the man advantage for 10 minutes. During that time we went down a further two scores.

"Once we were back up to 15 men, we were able to put Bannockburn under a bit of pressure, however a few wrong decisions meant we weren't able to convert that into points, although we did get a try with five minutes to go."

He added: "Ultimately, it was fitness that let us down over the second half, which resulted in a bit of lazy rugby, leading to multiple penalties and, ultimately, the yellow card.

"We move on and focus on the next game. We have two games left - if we can get two good victories, we should put ourselves in a good position to finish third now that second is just out of reach."

Rosyth are due to be back in action on Saturday February 17, at home to Bo'ness, with a 2pm start.