Leith triumph at Trinity

Leith travelled to Bangholm looking for a victory against Trinity Accies, a feat that has escaped them in a couple of generations. Indeed there was a sense of optimism in the air given an improvement in our form and our hosts not making the brightest start to their season. However, the Leith players also knew not to read to much into this as the form book can go out the window when it comes to local derbies.

As the weather brightened up over Edinburgh, Leith made a bight start to the game. An early penalty gave us field position from which to work, this allowed Craig Smith to release Ross Kilgour and give him a chance to take on his man, only some good cover defence stopped Kilgour and his subsequent offload to Dannfald but it was a signal of intent from Leith. The pressure was kept up on Accies with most of the rugby taking place in their half, the first score looked a matter of ‘when’ and not ‘if’. And indeed this was the case when Ryan Burgess, skipped around the side of some poor fringe defence, beat a couple of defenders and touched down for the score, Dannfald added the extras.

Leith’s failure to deal with a swirling restart gifted Accies some good field position and with the penalty count tallying up against us allowed our hosts to pile on the pressure. However resolute defence meant that no matter how great the pressure Accies weren’t going to get through. This was almost conceded when the home team opted to go for the 3 points rather than look to kick to the corner again. Following a successful kick Leith looked to get up the other end of the field to try and be the next on the scoreboard. A powerful run by Ross Marwick allowed him to breakthrough a number of tackles and make great progress into the opposition 22m, just as it looked like he was about to be snagged he managed to get the offload away to Ross Kilgour. Ross who had managed to track his inside centre’s run in support, scooped the offload and sprinted to score on the opposite wing. A terrific try showing the result of powerful, direct running followed by close support. The resultant kick was missed giving Leith a 12-3 lead.

It wasn’t long before this lead was extended even further. A poor kick from Trinity, caught under pressure from Ross Marwick, gave Leith good field position. An offload in contact from Marwick allowed quick thinking Blair Skipper to flick the ball through his legs to prop Stuart Fox on the edge of the Trinity defence he was grateful to find Craig Smith outside of him, Craig managed to carry the ball further into the 22m area. Big Credit again goes to Stuart Fox, making his first start for Leith, for following Smith and getting the resultant offload. Fox was then able to provide the other Smith sibling, Russell, the ball who in turn gave the waiting Kenny Dannfald the opportunity to beat the last defender and score. Dannfald converted his own try giving Leith a 19-3 lead.

I’m sure most of the Leith faithful on the pitch side would have taken that at half time, although the players weren’t quite finished their for the half. More pressure and quick play in the Trinity half gave Blair Skipper and Ryan Burgess to have a little role reversal. The Fly half was quick to spot the opportunity for quick ball at a ruck giving Burgess the smallest of gaps to speed through and go over for his fourth try in a couple of games. Dannfald missed the resultant conversion, meaning the score at half time was 24-3.

At half time it was clear that Leith were on top all over the pitch however we still weren’t firing on all cylinders and the team were warned against any complacency. The backs knew that they had to make every opportunity count in the 2nd half now they were playing into the wind with sun in their eyes. The forwards had to keep up the great work at set piece and in the loose they had displayed in the first half.

As expected, Trinity came out the traps looking to throw everything at Leith to try and find their back into the game. Despite an enormous amount of pressure put on the Leith defence once again Trinity only came away with three points to show for it. This then gave Leith the added impetus to go back up the other end of the pitch and get more points on the board. Substitute Ben Wilkinson had thought he had done exactly that when he managed to squirm his way through a number of tackles towards the line, however a tackle in the act of scoring managed to dislodge the ball and no score was given. However this gave Leith a sustained period of pressure in the Trinity 22m area, when captain Mark Phillips was able to steal a Accies line out and power towards the line before offloading to Andy Mac who was able to stretch out and finish well, becoming the first quadragenarian to score for Leith in a long time. The conversion was missed meaning the score was 29-6 to Leith.

Credit to Trinity who kept working and looking to get on the scoreboard which eventually paid off when Leith finally ran out of defenders and they were able to cross the whitewash in the corner. As ever though Leith were able to hit back in rapid succession. Trinity unable to cope with the Leith forwards in open play were forced to commit men to the breakdown meaning Leith had numbers out wide. The ball only made it as far as Craig Smith at first receiver who was able to dummy his was towards the try line before providing a great offload to Robert Stitt, who was able to score his first try (?) for Leith since joining a few years ago. Dannfald added the conversion.

It was almost a case of déjà vu as the sides traded scores again. First of all Trinity scored another try in similar fashion to their first before Leith struck back to have the last laugh on the game. Neat hands through the backs allowed Kenny Dannfald to hit a hard inside line and evade a few Trinity defenders, this allowed him to give Craig Smith the opportunity to break forward, a chip and chase was gathered and Smith went over under the posts unchallenged. Conversation added giving us a fulltime score of Trinity Accies 18 – 43 Leith.

While a great result and at times a fantastic performance the Leith players were aware there were still a few gears to go and could have been a lot more polished. However that is to take nothing away from the fantastic effort and aggression provided upfront by the forwards which allowed the backs to consistently make yards out wide and through the centres. A Leith win at Bangholm has been along time coming and the Leith team are now keen to follow it up at home in the coming weeks against Edinburgh Northern and St Boswells.

Tries – Burgess (2), Kilgour, Dannfald, MacIntosh, Stitt, Smith

Conv – Dannfald (4)

MOTM – Stuart Fox