Back to winning ways against Broughton

On a dry and crisp day at Academy Park rugby was finally returning to the home of rugby and Leith and an important game in East league 2 with Broughton visiting on the back of a rich vein of form.

As the game kicked off Leith immediately began to attack and it wasnt long before they got reward for their effort. Off clean lineout ball, Eoin Murphy, on his home debut, picked a great line to go through the Broughton centres, a quick offload to centre partner Craig Williamson who in turn gave Kenny Dannfald the simple 10m run in to score. Dannfald missed the conversion.

Leith were starting to build good possession and territory, the forwards were building a great platform from the scrum and the lineout however the final pass in the backs was often going to ground and just not sticking. This gave the opposition the chance to get back into the game and after some sloppy Leith play in attack, clearing their lines and finally bad tackling gave Broughton a score. The conversion was missed meaning the score was 5 a piece.

For the rest of the half Leith put Broughton under pressure in their half, Joe O Neil, Willie Cook and Conor Kerr were getting the better of the visitors front row and the catch and drive from the line out was also working well. However the home side wernt being clincial enough and squandered a few chances to extend their lead. The home team was disappointed to go in at the break 5-5.

The 2nd half brought more of the same however Broughton were starting to come more into the game but some stern Leith defence meant there were no major threats on the Leith line. The home team were also getting chance up the other end of the filed and looked the more likely to score again. The lead was finally extended with a Kenny Dannfald penalty before Leith threatened again. Centre Eoin Murphy picked from the ruck to go straight through the gap and charged towards the line, the last Broughton player tackled Eoin around the neck 2ms from the line. The penalty was awarded however to the dismay of the players and touchline no penalty try or yellow cardwas given, Dannfald took the easy chance to extend the lead to 11-5.

Despite a further 20 minutes or so of play there was no further scoring in the game and despite a few Broughton chances the war waged between the 22m lines with no major cutting edge.

Leith were glad to come away from the game with an important 4 points, in a very tight league, 10 points separate 4th and 9th so there is still no guarantees to be had in this league! The boys need all the support they can have in their remaining games to finish as high as possible.

Was a tough call for MOTm with many very good performances in the forwards in particular, the 2nd rows of Forsyth and McLeish worked very well whilst Kerr and Cook also hard stormers and the back row trio of Haggon, Mitchell and Paterson caused real threats . However for his constant threat in attack and sound defensive work Eoin Murphy on his home debut picks up the award

Try - Kenny Dannfald
Pen - Kenny Dannfald x 2