Edinburgh Northern 2XV 19 - 19 Leith 2XV

Match report by Will Tuft.

Rugby matches are quite often remembered months or years after the event for a dazzling piece of skill, a backs against the wall effort or a moment of madness. Leith 2XV’s match against Edinburgh Northern on the 16th March will be equally remembered, if only for the fact that at Christmas time 2019 every player will still be finding mud from the pitch about their person.

When players arrive before a game to the sight of numerous pools of water being brushed away from the lagoon like outfield by a willing band of volunteers, it is immediately clear that the fast flowing, off-the-cuff rugby that the 2s are synonymous with may not be the order of the day. In all fairness, the most appropriate order of the day would have been seafood as the entire pitch was more ocean than land.

Once the whistle blew for kickoff, any thoughts of a cancelled game and a warm drink dissipated with a blitz of hard carrying rugby from the Leith pack, with serial gain line beater Paul Haggon, antipodean tyro Sean Bates and Mr Leith Rugby Robert Stitt leading the onslaught with a sustained barrage of running to force the Northern defensive line backwards. This one up rugby dominated the opening gambit of the contest and despite the ball being wetter than an otter’s pocket, the pack maintained momentum through successive huge mauls and were rewarded with a penalty try from a Northern infringement. Making the most of a series of interesting decisions from the referee, Leith were able to extend their lead by capitalising on a one man advantage by unleashing pirate-lookalike Haggon from ten yards to break two tackles and flood over the whitewash, duly converted by Shaun Guesford, who was expertly marshalling the ball around the pitch via his boot, opening up a 14 point lead within 20 minutes.

But just like the sea that the pitch was becoming, there was ebb and flow to proceedings from then on. Northern, realising there were in much more of a match than they had expected, made a raft of changes and subsequently found themselves on the front foot. Superb defensive work on the ruck fringes from backrows Felix Palin and Andy Mac meant that the waves were repelled, but merely postponed rather than eradicated. Northern dotted down close to the posts after a storm of carries and closed the score line to within a try.

Men of the sea often say that you must be able to sail in high winds to consider yourselves successful and the men in blue proved they could do just that within minutes of the Northern opener as the evergreen Doug Watters leaned back and caressed a through ball deep into the opposition half for the onrushing George Easdon to display the kind of ball skills that would make Archie Gemmill blush, controlling and then diving on the loose ball to secure a meat pie out wide. Guesford was unlucky with the conversion and the score opened up to 19-7.

Control of the rucks from captain George Lees and a litany of powerful carrying from a crew of Big Ben Place, Budgie Wilson, for whom marriage seems to have installed a superhuman capability to demolish defenders, and Belhaven man of the match Ivan Sebastian Ruiz Diaz Acosta meant that Leith’s finest went into the sheds* for half time comfortably ahead.

As the second half lumbered into action, like a cargo ship leaving port, Northern’s panic substitutions of the first half were starting to pay dividends. Front front ball for the men in the seaweed coloured shirts was achieved and despite Captain Ahab style efforts from outside backs Tommy Seymour and Lex Dunko to stem the tides of advancing carriers, Northern slid into the ascendancy. Even with the vocal support of local celebrities Ben Wilkinson, Andrew Patterson, Ross Kilgour, Toby Kirkwood and Kevin the Dog, it was clear that a tide was turning.

With every puddle more of a hazard and looking more like a potential drowning threat with every passing minute, the boys from the Bunker found themselves in Leith’s 22. Now if anyone is familiar with Attitude era WWE, then the game’s next moment will make some sense. Aforementioned gain line abuser Haggon decided to do his best Edge impression by reenacting a perfect spear, although without using his arms, aiming at a player’s face and coming through a ruck. It is evident that the referee was not a big Edge fan and showed his displeasure for the manouvere by binning Haggon, much to the chagrin of all wrestling purists.

Northern scored almost immediately and set about trying to tie the game up. It was now time for Leith’s finishers, with Barker, Duncan, Garrido and Coyle entering the fray to shore up against the rising levels of Northern momentum. The last ten minutes were fraught, tense and ridiculously cold as the ball was stretched across the watery expanses of Inverleith Park, leading to a Northern try with no conversion, capping the score at 19 apiece.

Both teams strived for a score to take the points home but despite Josh Barker and Garrido adding impetus to a sodden and flooded pack and Duncan and Coyle providing sandbag-like ballast out wide, neither team were able to find the treasure of a score and the game ended as an entertaining and thoroughly wet draw.

The 2nd XV now await the visit of journeymen Ferry Road next weekend in their penultimate game of the season as they look to consolidate their first season in the reserve league.

*Sheds did not exist, everyone just stood outside in the cold and pondered why they were playing rugby in these conditions as they huddled to maintain core temperatures.