Leith down Thebans in friendly

With the League match being cancelled due to the unavailability of our North Berwick/ Dunbar opponents we were quickly able to get a friendly fixture organised against the Caledonian Thebans and friends (Lismore & Portobello player whose games were cancelled). Leith were relishing the challenge of facing such a large squad and knew it would be a challenge on the fitness in the later stages of the game.

Following on from kick off and Leith were already exerting pressure on the Thebans defence with several good phases of forward play pushing the back into their 22m. One of these rumbles the ball spilled out the tackle to Richard Hastings who was able to drive to the line and upon falling short, pop to David Meadows who crashed over. Leith didn’t have too long to wait for their 2nd try of the game after a neat break from a returned kick by Matt Balmer allowed a pop inside to his fellow Centre Gary Wardle who could run in unchallenged from the 22m. Dannfald converted this one for a 12-0 lead.

Provider became scorer as from an attacking scrum on the Thebans 22m line, Dannfald dinked the ball over the top of the defence and allowed Balmer to collect and sprint in for his own try. Leith couldn’t stop scoring as 2 identical tries were scored by the same player. From Line outs caught within the 22m area the forward pack surged forward and allowed Alan Harper Pardo to get the plaudits of the scores. Dannfald converted 2 of these to make the scores 31-0 at the half time break.

With Thebans (and their guest squad members) constantly changing personnel, the game became a little scrappy in the 2nd half with the incoming rain not helping matters either. However Leith did start on the correct note with new boy Josh Fraser taking a short pop from 9 just inside the 10m. There was no stopping as he crashed through the winger and touched down in the corner. Leith’s Next Try came after some good expansive play and keeping the ball alive. After spreading it wide to one touchline Leith began to bring it back and Richard Hastings gave Kenny Dannfald the easiest opportunity to coast over from 10 m out. Both converted bringing the score to 45-0

However this is where Leith fell away a wee bit a combination of taking the foot off the gas, wet weather and the opposition having fresh legs allowed the Thebans to run in 4 very quick and very sloppy (from a Leith point of view) tries. A few words of encouragement shared behind the posts and Leith got their act together again in the last 10 minutes. Two tries which were very similar to each other were scored. Firstly debutant Harry Lees was the grateful recipient of a overlap pass which allowed him to cross in the corner and then Kenny Dannfald was able to get on the outside of his man on the blindside to allow him to run over in the corner for the games last play. Final score 55-24

Overall another good performance from the 2nd xv with plenty to work on to try and build more structure to the game. Many thanks go to our opposition who played the game in tremendous spirits, hopefully get another game sorted soon.

Tries – Meadows, Wardle, Balmer, Pardo (2), Fraser, Dannfald (2), Lees
Conv – Dannfald (5)
MOTM - Meadows