Good day out at Portobello

Portobello started the game with a spell of good pressure due to some Leith indiscipline. Portobello couldn’t build on this however with two driving mauls from inside the 22 failing to get going and a failed kick at goal meant they left this good spell of pressure pointless
Leith began to edge their way in to the game with some good carries from the forwards, in particular Luke McKinney and man of the match Grant Aitken. However it was the backs that would help to turn the forwards pressure in to points.

After a stolen lineout by Mark Phillips on the Portobello 10 the ball was passed to inside centre Dave Robertson who step back inside his man before accelerating in to the 22 before unleashing winger Ross Kilgour with a pass behind the back of the Portobello full back which Kilgour touched down in the corner for his and Leith's first try of the afternoon. Ben Wilkinson picked up where he left off from the tee also slotting it straight between the uprights from just off the touchline.

The second try was from last week’s hat trick hero Burgess who benefited from some nice play by centres Robertson and Williamson to create an overlap on the wing. Burgess got the ball on the opposition 10 and outpaced the Portobello winger before stepping back inside of the full back to touch down under the posts. Ben Wilkinson again added the extra with a simpler kick in front of the posts.

A strong carry in the middle of the pitch from Prop Colin Marshall opened the door for Dave Robertson to add a try of his own after setting up Leith’s first. After Marshall took the ball in scrum half Paterson gave a lovely pass to find the looping run of Burgess. He got outside the Portobello defence and chipped the ball back in field for Robertson who nipped in before the covering winger to grubber it forward before diving on the ball to put Leith 21-0 with the extras again added by Wilkinson.

Leith got their last try of the half when they perfectly executed an overlap caused by building the phases with the forwards. The backs then went back to basics to draw and pass by the limited defence to send Burgess down the flank. Burgess raced past the covering defence before again drawing the full back and sending Kilgour over for his second of the day. However Wilkinson failed to add the extras with his first miss in 9 attempts this season.

The second half was a much more even affair. Portobello started the second half like they did the first however this time came away with 12 points to show for it.

Their second try came not long after when the Portobello standoff took a quick tap on the Leith 10 and went on a powerful and searing run taking advantage of some slack Leith defence before touching the ball down in the corner. Leith finally got a foot hold in the second half and back on the scoresheet through towering winger Ross Marwick who finished of an 8 phase passage which started on the halfway line and ended with Marwick crashing through 2 tacklers form 5 yards out. A passage of play that Leith will look to build on throughout this season with multiple players getting their hands on the ball and making yards.

It didn’t take Portobello long to hit back however. This time executing an overlap themselves with their near side winger looping around to take the ball on the outside before stepping past both the Leith left winger and full back to touch down. And the end to end style of the second half continued with Leith restoring their 21 point lead through substitute scrum half and former captain Doug Watters. After a rampaging run from the Leith 8 McKinney with it taking 3 Portobello defenders to stop the big man. They couldn’t however stop the offload which McKinney gave to the ever present Robertson who took Leith in to Portobello’s 22. Watters used the runs of the Leith forwards to dummy the fringe defence and break for the line before shrugging off 3 tacklers to get his first of the season. Ben Wilkinson with his second miss of the season from the tee.

Portobello finished on a high though with their standoff again making yards with a powerful run before offloading to the support runner who fed the winger to score for Portobello’s and the game final try of the day.

A good result for Leith beating Portobello for the first time in recent years. Man of the match for Leith was our own cannon ball Grant Aitken who had a fantastic game from start to finish with numerous carries and turnovers. We would also like to wish Grant and his family a massive congratulations on the birth of his second child last week. Maybe winning man of the match was the second best thing to happen to Grant last week…

See all the tries from the game at our YouTube page

See you all next week back at Leith as we welcome newly promoted Ross High RFC where Leith will be looking to make it 3 wins from 3.