It might not resemble the fate of Icarus, but Dundee HSFP have been forced to adapt to a pretty spectacular fall from grace in the last few months.
Last season, the Mayfield team were participating in the Premiership and the British & Irish Cup and seemed to be sailing along comfortably. Then they plunged into relegation trouble, suffered the drop to the Scottish National League and lost their long-standing coach, Ian Rankin, who now has a senior post at Murrayfield.
Corporal Jones kept shouting: "Don't panic", whenever matters grew dire. Yet, according to Colin Robertson, who picked up the reins from Rankin, there was a lurking sense of dread when he met up with his charges at the start of the new campaign. It was not just that 10 of the previous year's regular 1st XV had departed elsewhere - although that was bad enough - but the fact that the Dundonians had witnessed the decline of once-mighty institutions such as West of Scotland and recognised that nobody owes anybody else a living these days, and certainly not in the cut-throat milieu of grassroots rugby.
In which light, it was perhaps hardly surprising when the Raintown brigade struggled in their early fixtures, with Robertson initially having to graft just to paper over the cracks. At one stage, it seemed Boroughmuir, Watsonians and Stewart's-Melville FP might sprint off into the distance and carve up the league between them, but Dundee have always been a proud organisation and have recently racked up seven consecutive victories. The most important of these came on Saturday, when they prevailed 31-20 over Boroughmuir, with the Scottish legends, David Leslie and Finlay Calder, watching from the periphery, and, suddenly, although the Meggetland side still have a healthy advantage at the summit, only three points separate the next four clubs and Dundee are right back in the mix.
"I wasn't even thinking about promotion, for the first six or seven weeks. It was all about trying to get the squad up to speed and the new players gelling, and there was a wee bit of panic around the club when we looked at where we were in the summer," said Robertson.
"We only managed to retain one of our backs, so we have had to start from scratch in some areas, but, fortunately, the lads have put in a fantastic effort and we have built up a fair bit of impetus and momentum, especially in the last month. We knew we had to beat Boroughmuir and they have a decent [eight-point] lead. But I think they are looking a bit more shaky than they were a few weeks back and we have to keep the pressure on. Most of the other leading sides have to come here and we believe that could boost us."
The winter has brought with it the usual guddle of different domestic competitions intermingling and Dundee tackle Kirkcaldy in the Cup this weekend, having already thrashed Aberdeenshire 91-10. Their main priority, though, lies in contests such as the trip to Kelso on St Andrew's Day and a tussle with Watsonians on December 21.
"We know we have to keep winning, but I honestly think Dundee need to be in the top flight and we have made significant progress from where we were in September," said Robertson.
"The chemistry is right now and the boys are growing in confidence. But we will find out where we stand at Kelso, because that will be a tough game."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article