Leith hit the ground running with a bonus point home win.

Match Report: Craig Winton

Leith started the game hoping to further progress last year’s third place finish and got off to a flying start. In a team boasting 4 players making the competitive debuts for the club Leith never looked like they would lose their opening game of the 2015/16 season. Leith’s first try came in the opening ten minutes when full back Ryan Burgess took a quick tap from just inside the opponents half, dummying two Liberton forwards and then proceeding to step around the full back making it 5-0 to Leith.

Leith’s second try came after some great hands from prop Colin Marshall who put competitive debutant Luke McKinney on a rampaging 15 yard run before showing subtle hands to offload to full back Burgess for his and Leith’s second of the day.

It wasn’t long till Leith were on the score board again. Some quality hands and use of space from forwards Mark Phillips and Luke McKinney sent centre Dave Robertson through a gap just outside his own 22. Robertson showed great pace and drew the Liberton fullback before passing to flying winger Ross Marwick who outpaced the covering winger to touch down in the corner.

A Leith forward finally got on the score sheet when quick thinking from scrum half Andrew Paterson who tapped and went from 8 yards out passing to Grant Aitken who cannonballed his way over to touch down and make it 28-0 to Leith at the break.

As the second half got under way Liberton started to edge their way in to the game. Their scrum which had been strong and dominant all day took its toll and they used the momentum they gathered from this to put some real pressure on the Leith goal line. Liberton finally got their break through as they pilled some forwards in the midfield and from 5 yards out they got on score sheet.

Leith then showed good defence to keep a hungry Liberton out in spite of having 2 men sin binned and spending 8 minutes down to 13 men. However when Liberton got a scrum 5 yards out they got a shove on and their number 8 picked and crashed over the line.

Leith put the game fully to bed though when Man of the Match Ryan Burgess got the ball from debutant Craig Williamson in his own 22 and showed tremendous pace and agility to go the length of the field and touch down for his Hat Trick.

The game finishing 35-12 to Leith in what is a solid start to the new league campaign. Special mention to fullback Burgess who was a threat every time he touched the ball as well as stand-off Ben Wilkinson who was 100% from the tee which included some challenging kicks from the touchline. We will be hoping to carry this winning form over to next week when we head to take on old friends Portobello.

See all the tries from the match at http://bit.ly/1i5S9Pc