Leith back to winning ways

After a few sub standard performances, Leith want to put what has went wrong in the past couple of outings. Also with the late September sun and promise of a bumper Ladies Day crowd the Leith men, looking resplendent in their Pink change strip, wanted to put on a show too.

It didn’t taken long for the Academy Park faithful to get a taste of things to come (although many of them hadn’t made their way from the bar yet!). An early line out deep within Penicuik allowed Leith to play wide and fast. Blair Skipper was able to give Craig Smith some early ball, he only needed half an invitation to go on the outside which he duly accepted to scarpper down the left wing and touchdown out left. Kenny Dannfald was able to make the kick giving Leith a 7-0 lead within the first few minutes.

It wasn’t long before Leith added a 2nd when once again Blair Skipper was able provide scrum half Ryan Burgess with an opportunity to take his man on out wide. Like Craig, burgess duly obliged and was able to jink his way to touch down under the posts. Dannfald once again added the extras. It was all Leith in the opening period and the squad were keen to capitalise on their dominance.

Leith’s third try came as a bit of a breakaway with clinical movement from the back three. Fantastic support play, movement and passing between Smith, Dannfald and Robertson, allowed Robertson to draw the final defender and put Smith under the posts for his 2nd of the game. Unfortunately this is where Leith seemed to stop for the half. Despite having a few additional opportunities to add scores to the tally, individual mistakes gifted Penicuik more and more of the possession. However Leith did defend resolutely, with the opposition electing to have a go at a scrum they had dominated up until now in the game, the Leith pack stood up when it counted to put in a few solid scrums. Leith came close to clearing the danger to end the first half however failure to sack the Penicuik line out was too much to defend and the try was conceded. Half Time - Leith 21 – 5 Penicuik

Leith were warned that our visitors would come out the trap at the beginning of the 2nd half and throw everything at us to try and get back into the game. However Leith failed to acknowledge this warning and allowed Penicuik back into the game with another score early in the 2nd half. The conversion was missed, which gave Leith a little more breathing space and the warning they needed to kick start again in the same.

Penicuik began to tire and as Leith stepped back up a gear the tries started to roll in. First of all the Skipper/ Burgess combination sparked up again allowing Burgess to get his second of the game. Craig Smith scooped a trade mark interception from the Penicuik Fly half to canter in from half way unopposed. Dave Robertson was able to get over for his first League try of the campaign after some good pressure from the forwards allowed Craig Winton to gift him a try. Dannfald got in on the action too as he scooped a neat grubber kick through from Ben Wilkinson, to get his 4th try in 4 games. Provider then became scorer as some terrific wing play from Ross Kilgour allowed Fraser Ross to stride into the 22m before offloading to Ben Wilkinson as the last defender caught up. The only blot on this passage of play was as Penicuick scored their third of the afternoon.

Final score – Leith 57 – 17 Penicuik

A victory which was harder than it needed to be at times however always good to see clinical play when it is required. Despite not providing any scores to the day credit must go to the forwards who put on a better performance than in previous weeks. Despite playing against a much larger pack the aggression, speed and fitness levels displayed gave the backs the platform to put on a clinical display.

Tries – Craig Smith (4), Ryan Burgess (2), Dave Robertson, Kenny Dannfald, Ben Wilkinson (1)

Conv – Kenny Dannfald (6)

MOTM – Neil Patterson.