IRVINE’s unbeaten league record at Marress is over thanks to a careless performance against second bottom Dunfermline.

The visitors came into the game having won only once in the league so far, and will no doubt use this victory as a launchpad to get themselves up the table.

The hosts, meanwhile, must sort themselves out quickly with tough games to come against Preston Lodge, Lasswade and RHC before Christmas.

There was some consolation for Irvine in the two bonus points they scored – one for scoring four tries and one for losing by less than seven points – which actually move them up a place in the league, with Perthshire losing 39-16 to this weekend’s visitors.

The tone for what was to come was set in the opening minutes, a loose kick out of defence landing in the waiting hands of winger David Lovelock who duly darted over in the corner for the game’s opening try.

Irvine struggled to impose themselves on the game and for a while it looked as if Dunfermline were going to extend their lead. But the home side found the breakthrough midway through the first half when Kevin Lang rounded off their first serious spell of possession in the opposition 22 with his ninth try of the season, which Lincoln Ormsby converted for a 7-5 lead.

Ormsby and his opposite number Zac Zropf traded penalty misses before the hosts scored their second try five minutes before the interval.

Ruchin Filander – restored to the starting lineup after his return from injury – did the initial damage with a trademark break before feeding the supporting Alistair Maxwell, who crossed on the left.

There was drama in injury-time when a fight broke out in midfield and Irvine’s Michael Kirk was sent to the sin-bin for his part in it.

Irvine held on for most of the power play but were unable to prevent lock Stuart Roy from claiming the visitors’ second try moments before Kirk’s return, which Zropf converted to level the scores.

The game petered out for a while after this, with Ian Kerr’s close call on the left after good work by Neil McMillan, and a penalty miss by Zropf, the only chances of note until Zropf made amends for his earlier miss to edge Dunfermline back in front with a quarter of an hour remaining.

Irvine hit back shortly afterwards when the visitors committed a deliberate knock-on – somehow escaping a yellow card in the process – and from the resulting penalty the home forwards mauled over on the right, with Kirk claiming the touchdown.

Ormsby was unable to convert, and the visitors punished the miss with five minutes to go when fly-half Adam Fraser slotted a drop-goal to regain the lead.

They then made the game safe with two minutes left when centre Scott Gracie crashed over on the left, after an overcooked kick-off had given the visitors the ball back. Zropf’s conversion took their lead past a converted try.

Irvine clinched the two bonus points in injury time when Blair Jardine scored under the posts, and added the conversion to narrow the gap to a single point.

The hosts could even have stolen victory on the last play when the ball was worked to Craig Lang down the left, but the winger found the Dunfermline defence, as they had been all afternoon, in determined mood IRVINE: I Kerr; N Murray, N McMillan, K Lang, C Lang; L Ormsby, V Meredith; C Mackie, M Kirk, E Callaghan, A Thomson, T McHarg, B Jardine, A Maxwell, R Filander. Reps: T Turner, A Nugent, C Hobson, K Hobson.

DUNFERMLINE: G Low; A Conyers, S Gracie, Z Zropf, D Lovelock; A Fraser, H Masters; M Callan, M Lloyd, M Punter, S Roy, F Cowe, C Stewart, R Blanchflower, L Quarm. Reps: B Nicol, S Murphy, J Wieczorek.