After defeats to Barnton and Lismore, Leith were looking for their first Academy Park victory of the season on Saturday, and to build on the previous week's victory at Earlston. They went into the game slightly depleted after a couple of failed fitness tests, and the gametime withdrawal through illness of scrum half Ross Kilgour.

Despite these events Leith took an early lead, after a penalty was kicked to the corner, and from the resulting lineout, hooker Craig Winton hit Mike McLeish, before getting on the end of the catch and drive, to dot down for the game's opener, converted by Kenny Dannfald. Northern's hitback was swift however with an unconverted score of their own, before Dannfald and the Northern 10 traded penalties for a narrow 10-8 home lead. At the half hour mark however, Leith stretched their half time lead to 17-8, as some good driving play from the pack produced ball for the backs and standoff Ben WIlkinson threw a wide pass to centre Doug Watters, who put his winger, Steven Eadie, on the outside of his opposite man to gas into the corner. Dannfald again converting.

The Northern pack were twice held up at the beginning of the second half, before eventually rumbling over to cut the deficit to 17-13, before having regained some territory, an error at the base of a Northern scrum saw the ball bounce up into the hands of Wilkinson, who raced away from the cover defence to score under the posts, for a 24-13 lead. At this point a third injury in the visiting front row saw the rare sight in senior rugby of uncontested scrums, which took some of the grunt out of the contest. Nevertheless, shortly after the home side scored again with a deft offload from openside Marcos Teixeira putting Eadie away again to round the outside defender and score near the posts, which when converted saw Leith at a 31-13 lead.

Northern refused to submit however, and some disappointing inside defence saw their number 8 go under the posts for a converted try which with 20 minutes to go, got the visitors back into the game at 31-20. Pleasingly for Leith the response was swift, as Ross Finlay put second row Toby Kirkwood over the line from close range, and a 38-20 lead. That wasn't the end of the scoring however, as the visitors had the final word, as their outside centre broke a couple of tackles to go over the line, and produce a final score of 38-25.

All in a good performance from Leith, much improved on recent outings, but with a great deal to work on in the coming weeks. Bonus point wins are bonus points wins, though, and the club can attack this week at training with renewed confidence.

Tries: Craig Winton, Steven Eadie (2), Ben WIlkinson, Toby Kirkwood
Conversions: Kenny Dannfald (5)
Penalty: Kenny Dannfald

Man of the Match: Among a string of candidates, Mike McLeish stood tallest for his work in the lineout, and energy around the pitch.