Leith knocked out at Forrester

Leith made their way across to West Edinburgh to take on Forrester in the quarter final of the Edinburgh Shield with 12 changes to the team that took on Lismore the previous week with injuries, illness and general unavailability hitting the squad hard.

However despite this the Leith team took the field hoping to cause an upset on the day and did start brightly pulling together well as a unit. In the opening exchanges Leith had the majority of the possession and territory, forcing Forrester back under pressure. Unfortunately despite possession and territory Leith were unable to come away with any points with Kenny Dannfald missing a straight forward penalty opportunity. Leith went close again as Andy Mac, hunting for his 2nd try in 2 weeks, got the ball down over the line, however the referee ruled that it was held up.

Forrester then started to come more into the game, with Leith being asleep to a quick tap penalty on halfway Forrester broke out into the 22m. Despite being repelled for a while, Forrester eventually had one drive too many for the Leith forwards to stop, 7-0 to the hosts. However, despite this set back Leith refused to shrink back into their shell. More good work and possession in the opposition half gave Pete Swift, on as a blood replacement and making his debut for the club, the opportunity to break down the wing and into the 5m line. Quick recycling and a quick ball from Ryan Burgess allowed Doug Watters to step inside and put Neil Paterson over from short range. The conversion was missed by Watters and the scores were at 7-5 to the home side.

Unfortunately, 5 minutes later at the very end of the half Leith succumbed to another driving maul from Forrester, meaning the halftime score was 14-5. At this point Leith felt they were more than in the game, as despite the scoreline and issues at the set piece they were making a lot of what possession they were getting. It was a disastrous start to the 2nd half for Leith as they allowed the big centre through the middle from not too far out. 21-5 to Forrester.

Despite being down, Leith were not yet done. Collecting the ball off a wide pass in his own half Ryan Burgess, a scrum half who played both centre positions on the day, scampered round the outside of his man before stepping the full back on the 22m to score under the posts. Cue the (world's smallest) 'Goanna'. Dannfald added the extras bringing the score to 21-12. Both sides were reduced to 14 men in quick succession, the forrester 9 was sent packing, not really sure why, before Andy Mac was given 10 minutes for what the ref adjudged a deliberate slap down, when he raised his arms to tackle the man with the ball. However cant complain too much as it was the same for both sides. (Despite what other news outlets may be reporting..)

Forrester were forced to kick a penalty to take the game to 24-12, I’m sure on other occasions they may have went for the corner but against a dogged and determined Leith side, they did not want to take that chance. It was from here that the Leith challenge failed. Despite fighting until the end a few soft tries were conceded putting the opposition out of reach. ‘Choo’ Lawrie, making his first start in the front row was forced to retire due to injury, his replacement Robert Stitt, was also forced to retire due to injury not long after. This meant that we had to play uncontested scrums for the remainder of the game, unfortunate as despite struggling at the set piece for most of the day and the game out of reach, really scrummaging practice can be useful for a pack that’s not played much together.

The game finished 46 -12 to our hosts, who we wish good luck to in their semi final on Saturday at Dunbar.

Overall we were disappointed not to have a bigger go at it in the 2nd half but happy with the way the team stuck together until the end. It will serve us well when we return in a few weeks on league duty.

Tries – Neil Paterson, Ryan Burgess

Conversion – Kenny Dannfald

MOTM - Ryan Burgess

Team:

1 Craig Winton 2 Willie Cook 3 Thomas Lawrie 4 Neil Paterson 5 Ben Place 6 Kyle Gow 7 David Meadows 8 Andy MacIntosh;

9 Andrew Paterson 10 Doug Watters 11 Ross Kilgour 12 Dave Robertson 13 Ryan Burgess 14 Steven Eadie 15 Kenny Dannfald (Capt.);

16 Sam Hall 17 Robert Stitt 18 Lucas Shearon 19 Pete Swift.