Dunbar welcomed Portobello to Hallhill for an East 1 clash on Saturday.

The home team were looking to get back to winning ways after the defeat away to Dalkeith the previous week.

With conditions ideal for rugby, Dunbar got off to a fantastic start, scoring after just one minute. The home side drove deep into Portobello territory on the left side of the park. Quick ball saw Portobello give away a penalty in front of the posts, which Blair Mills quickly took. The Dunbar scrum-half fed his forwards, who then set up good ball for the backs out wide. Quick thinking by Mills saw the ball go along the line to full-back Ross Charlton to score out wide. The youngster missed the conversion but had given his side a five-point lead.

Dunbar continued to drive their advantage home, with Greig Patrizio extending the lead on eight minutes with a well-worked try after Andrew Wightman had set up good ball.

This should have been the catalyst for Dunbar to push on but the game got extremely disorganised, with very little quality on show. With 25 minutes gone Dunbar gave away a penalty but fortunately the kick was missed.

Play continued to be scrappy until the 37th minute when Dunbar extended their lead to 15-0, with the ball fed quickly along the line to John Peebles, who strolled over for the touchdown.

Portobello had to replace their tight-head prop on 38 minutes. This seemed to give the visitors added energy as they then forced play deep into the Dunbar 22. A driving maul gave Dunbar no chance as the Portobello forwards drove over on the stroke of half-time to cut the deficit to 15-5.

Dunbar made several changes at the break, with Chris Baikie replacing Richie Gallacher, Robert Courtney coming on for Gary Peebles and Scott Moreton taking to the field in place of Stuart Crichton in the second row.

Dunbar started the second half well, forcing play deep into the Portobello 22. Portobello ran the ball along the dead ball line before clearing to touch. The visitors took the ball against the throw but the ball went loose before Moreton pounced to score at the corner. This gave Dunbar the bonus point but Charlton saw his conversion come back off the bar.

Dunbar then replaced the youngster with Kieran Donnellan on 53 minutes and looked to have extended their lead three minutes later, but prop Wightman was held up over the line.

The Dunbar pack were struggling for good ball from both lineout and scrums. Gary Peebles returned to replace his brother John on the wing on 60 minutes, with Gallacher replacing Denham Blair, but the game was really struggling as a spectacle, with plentiful stoppages in play. Crichton replaced Dylan Moffat in the second row.

Dunbar then had Baikie yellow-carded on 72 minutes for repeated infringements. This led to Blair coming back on to the front row, with Crichton making way. Dunbar looked to have scored again through Courtney but the referee awarded Portobello a penalty, much to the disgust of the Dunbar players. Sandy Thomson was yellow-carded for speaking out of turn and then received a straight red for further words the referee took umbrage against.

Nevertheless, Dunbar held on to win the match 20-5 This was not the best Dunbar performance but a bonus point win was achieved.

Dunbar now head to the Borders tomorrow (Saturday) to play Hawick Harlequins.

Dunbar: R Charlton, J Peebles, G Peebles, S Thomson, A Brown; J Peters, B Mills; A Wightman, D Blair, R Gallacher, S Crichton, D Moffat, Kyle Donnellan, K Courtney, G Patrizio.