Leith victorious at Double Hedges

Leith travelled to the south of Edinburgh looking to bounce back from last week’s heavy defeat to St Boswells. With several members of the squad returning from injury, illness and unavailability Leith hoped for the win that might take them up to 3rd in the table. However the conditions would be testing with a strong wind blowing the length of the pitch and the sun high in the sky, would put skills to the test.

Leith elected to play with the wind at their backs in the first half, hoping to get on top of the game. However, a Liberton scored within the first few minutes did not help the case. A box kick hanging in the wind bounced awkwardly between winger Kilgour and Fullback Dannfald and into the arms of the on coming Liberton centre who was able to go over under the posts for the games first score, which was converted. Leith then looked to hit back from this set back and level things up, but nothing was really clicking. A combination of dropped passes, poor execution and bad decisions meant that Leith were getting increasingly frustrated.

Frustrations would have increased when Kenny Dannfald missed a straight forward opportunity to claw back 3 points. However the all important break through came not too long later. Increasing Leith pressure gave Leith territory inside the Liberton 22m. Liberton were running out of defenders when Blair Skipper got the ball from a back of a ruck and was able to put blind side winger Ross Kilgour through on the inside to score in the corner. Dannfald added the conversion. Leith were starting to go through the gears and it wasn’t too long before the next try was added. Leith awarded a penalty, which the forwards took quickly and rumbled into the 22m. This gave skipper quick ball to hit Craig Smith who got round the outside of his opposite man to score. The conversion was missed which drew to a close the final action of the half. 12-7 at half time.

Leith were aware that they had to put a big shift in during the 2nd half, they would be playing with the sun in their eyes and wind against them. The squad knew they had to improve on their 1st half performance or be at risk of losing the game.

The start was somewhat positive in that despite the conditions being against Leith in the half, pressure was being applied deep into Liberton territory. However, once again simple errors and decision making were letting Leith down. However once again Leith eventually did make the breakthrough. A simple backs move in the middle of the pitch allowed Kenny Dannfald to release Steven Eadie down the right wing. The flyer made short work of beating the covering defence to score underneath the posts. Dannfald added the extras.

However from the position of control Leith had now established they transpired to let Liberton back in to the game. A successful penalty got Liberton an extra 3 points before a moment of madness from Dannfald gifted our hosts a try. A kick fielded deep in our 22m should have been dealt with by putting boot to ball, however on this occasion a slack pass from Dannfald into Kilgour, put the winger under pressure from the oncoming kick chase giving the home side an easy score. The conversion was missed but the score was now closer at 19 -15.

Leith once again extended their lead with slick work from a quick tap penalty. With the ball going straight out to the backs, Craig Smith was able to beat the initial tackle on his way to the line, as he was snagged he was able to offload to Ross Kilgour, who in turn took the ball a few metres and gave to ball to Ross Marwick who had the simple task of crashing over the line for the bonus point try. Great support and follow up work from the backs involved. Conversion added, 26 – 15 to Leith.

From here once again Leith looked to surrender the lead, with a little help from the man in the middle. Bizarre decisions were being made for both teams and really breaking up the rhythm of the game. With the strong wind at our host’s backs, they were able to take shots at goal from half way when the penalties were awarded. However bizarrely if the penalties were missed and went dead the ref was awarding us with a scrum from where they were kicked!! However this did make up for conceding penalties for not releasing the ball on the deck, despite the player with the ball not even being on the ground!! However despite a number of misses Liberton were successful with a few kicks taking the score to a very close 26-24 to Leith.

The referee called for full time much to the relief of the Leith players and bemusement of the Liberton camp, as the ball was kicked straight out from a kick off. A very poor Leith performance a game we could have lost very easily despite almost being out of sight on a few occasions. A lot to improve on before our shield clash next week.

Fulltime - Liberton 24 – 26 Leith

Tries – Kilgour, Smith, Eadie, Marwick

Convs – Dannfald (3)

MOTM - Eadie