As kick off approached it was good to see so many former players, as well as the guests of honor, the ladies on the touch line as the sun shone down on Academy Park. The visitors on Ladies Day were no doubt looking for revenge for their loss in the Shield to Leith a couple of weeks ago.

The game kicked off and before the ladies had finished their pre match prosecco, the home side were a score up. After some quick play across the park led to centre Doug Watters filling into the dummy half role and with the Northern defence on the back foot he was able to jink through the first line of defence before drawing the last man and putting Craig Williamson underneath the posts. Kenny Dannfald adding the simple extras.

From here Leith were looking to kick on and play the game to their style and tempo, however this was not to be. Struggling to clear their lines and get a control of the ball, a couple of cheap penalties conceded meant Northern were able to bring the score back to 7-6. The momentum kept swinging to the visitors as winger Jon Derrin suffered the cruelest bounce and saw the ball wrong foot him and into the arms of the onrushing Northern winger who was able to score for a 13-7 lead.

However with this score Leith awoke from their slumber and once again started to come into the game and controlled a bit more of the ball. There was a few chances for the Academy Park men however the hands were letting the boys down as they were not able to capitalise. All of this was until some quick play down the left hand side let Fraser Forsyth burst through a tackle and give Watters a pass 5ms out for an easy finish. Northern were to have the last laugh in the half however as another penalty was converted to give the away team a 17-12 lead.

The Leith boys were determined to start the 2nd half the same as the first half and kick on from there, although Northern had similar ideas. A couple of lapses of concentration in defence gave the visitors a simple try, before an interception saw the winger go 60 metres to compound Leiths misery. From this point the home side were chasing the game, fighting to get the scores that would see them get back into the game. Eventually the pressure told as centre Eoin Murphy broke through the centre and slung the ball wide to Jon Derrin to score in the corner. Dannfald unlucky to see his conversion bounce off the crossbar from out wide.

However it was just as Leith got a foot seemingly back into the game it was Northern who got another try as they broke through to dot down under the posts. However Leith would strike back yet again as good work in the 22 by the forwards had the Northern defence on the back foot and stretched which allowed Ben Wilkinson to pop off to Fraser Forsyth for the big 2nd row to slide in for his first of the season. There was still a sense that the game was still there for the home side but after Eoin Murphy saw yellow, Northern were able to exploit their numerical advantage to score their 5th try of the afternoon.

Leith did get the final score of the game however after an Eoin Murphy break through the middle of the field let scrum half Craig Williamson pick and go in the 22m against a very disorganised defence and dot down under the posts for his 2nd of the game. It was unfortunately one of Craig's last actions of the afternoon as he suffered a dislocated shoulder a few moments later, thoughts go out to Craig and hope for a speedy recovery.

Leith were determined to try and get another scored and get atleast a losing bonus point to go with their try bonus point already secured. However Northern were able to control out the last 5 minutes and hold on for the win.

Final Score - Leith 31 - 40 Edinburgh Northern

Overall a very disappointing result for the Academy Park men, a game that was there to be won however on the day several things did not click and the visitors were able to stick to their game plan to good effect. There are some positives to be taken from the game - scoring 5 tries isn't always easy however conceding 5 tries isn't good enough and coupled with the difference making 3 penalties in front of the posts made for the 9 point difference at the end of the game.

Serrano Manchego Man of the Match - Fraser Forsyth
Tries - Williamson (2), Watters, Forsyth, Derrin
Conversions - Dannfald (3)