Match Report: Leith v Fife Southern Sharks

Leith welcomed Fife Southern Sharks to Academy Park in our first warm-up game of the new season, in a reverse of the two sides opening warm-up fixture of 2013-14. With Sharks boasting several new signings and their not having had a break all summer, a far closer game than the previous one was expected – and so it proved.

After all the buzz of the Open Day morning at Leith, both sets of players did well to stay focussed in what was a bright, high-scoring game, despite the prevalence of scrums. The Sharks started the brighter, running some good hard lines and gaining excellent field position, but it was Leith who scored first through an excellent breakaway score. After receving a penalty in their own 22, a quick tap and go into the forwards was recycled to the backs where Craig Smith put Ross Kilgour away down the left touchline. The winger burnt the first covering defender, before drawing the second and popping inside to supporting fullback, Kenny Dannfald, who stepped inside the final defender to score under the posts. Try converted by Doug Watters.

The second try was to follow shortly after with quick hands from Watters and Ben Wilkinson setting blindside, Russell Smith away down the same left wing channel where he fed Dannfald to touch down in the corner. Conversion missed by Watters. A few minutes later and another breakaway try saw Russell Smith pick up a loose pass on the bounce to sprint 50 metres to score. The kick from Watters seeing Leith to a 19-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Fife found their feet at the start of the second quarter and regained some territory, and after some good phase play in the forwards, an excellent tip-on saw their big second row cruise over from short yardage. Conversion missed. Leith then restored their three score advantage when centre Craig Smith fielded a clearance kick on his own 22, running 50 metres past several opponents before passing inside to the supporting Dannfald, who completed a first half hat-trick. Watters added the extras to take the score out to 26-5. Sharks played out the remainder of the half in Leith territory, but the home defence held strong to keep out several efforts close to the line.

Leith scored again early into the third quarter, when having built several phases through the forwards and been awarded a penalty close out, Grant Aitken cleared out a ruck, then picked up and crashed over. Conversion made by Watters for 33-5. Southern then scored three unanswered tries either side of the third and fourth quarter break, with their second row going over for a second, and flanker/prop crashing over through some weak tackling after taking a quick tap penalty, then after the break a series of pick and goes near the line were finished off from close range, to take the score to 33-26, and a game that looked like a cruise for Leith at one point was suddenly within 2 scores. Any home concerns were laid to rest as Leith went on to dominate the rest of the fourth quarter, and centre Smith showing good pace to go over in the corner with 5 minutes remaining. A nice conversion from Watters from the touchline brought up the 40 points, and the game ended 40-26.

A big thank you to both sets of players for their efforts on a scorching day, in providing an entertaining, if a little rusty, fixture, the flow of which was undoubtedly affected by huge numbers of rolling substitutions. A valuable workout for both sides however, and thanks to Fife Sharks for coming through. We look forward to welcoming them to our 7s later in the year. Good luck in 2014-15.

Next up for Leith is a trip to Glasgow to face Hyndland on August 16th.

Scoring
Tries: Kenny Dannfald (3), Russell Smith, Grant Aitken, Craig Smith
Assists: Ross Kilgour, Russell Smith, Craig Smith, Ben Wilkinson
Conversion: Doug Watters (5)
Man of the Match: Mark Phillips

Team
15 Kenny Dannfald (v.capt), 14 Steven Eadie, 13 Craig Smith, 12 Fraser Ross, 11 Ross Kilgour, 10 Ben Wilkinson, 9 Doug Watters;

1 Cal McKay, 2 Sam Hall, 3 Paul Allison, 4 Jamie Martin, 5 Kyle Gow, 6 Russell Smith, 7 Greg Hancock, 8 Mark Phillips (capt).

16 Tom Lawrie, 17 Richard Hastings, 18 Pietro Guerrera, 19 Andy MacIntosh, 20 Sam Walker, 21 Blair Skipper, 22 Andy Morgan, 23 Craig Davitt