Leith came into the weekend's visit to Doublehedges looking for a 3rd league win in a row, and so it ultimately proved, with a dominant first half display ensuring victory, and the maximum 5 points.

Liberton started the game well, and with Leith guilty of forcing the pass early on, our hosts dominated early possession as they burrowed around the corner for several minutes - the Leith defence standing strong, and relatively comfortable. That was until, following the concession of a penalty, the Liberton scrum half reacted quicker than the back tracking defence to put one of his forwards crashing over the try line from short range - a sure warning shot to the visitors that this would be no easy victory, despite our hosts league position. Not that there had been any pre-game complacency, as games at Doublehedges are invariably close affairs, and hotly contested regardless of prior form. From the kick off Liberton exited to half way, and from there Leith finally had some possession, which they immediately made count, as captain Ben Wilkinson passed wide to Doug Watters who skipped outside his opposite man, drew the winger and fed fullback Kenny Dannfald on the outside, who in turn drew the home fullback and passed back inside to the excellent tracking run of far side winger Ross Marwick, who raced in from 25metres to tie the scores at 5-5. Leith then took the lead with another long range try, as inside centre Stevie Muirden put Marwick through a hole in the defence to run in from halfway - Dannfald adding the conversion for a 12-7 lead.

Although it was the backs grabbing the glory, the up turn in the visitor's fortunes was undoubtedly down to a dominant first half by the pack, with some aggressive gain line defence, in particular from Marcos Teixeira, Joe O'Neil and replacement Pete Mitchell (on for Michele Crolla) ensuring Leith dominated possession for the remainder of the half, and it wasn't long before one of the forwards got in on the action, with no8 Luke McKinney picking at the ruck and crashing through defenders on his way to the first of his two tries. Dannfald added the extras for a 19-7 lead, and on the half hour Wilkinson again passed wide to Watters, who slipped out of the tackle and stepped inside the cover defence to dive over to extend the lead to 24-7. The first half scoring was completed by another powerful forwards try, as Toby Kirkwood took the tap penalty pass from Fergal MacNamara to drive through the defenders from 20m for a converted try, and a half time lead of 31-7.

Leith dropped off the standards and structure slightly in the second half, but that should not be over stated, as the Liberton side undoubtedly upped their own performance, some substitutes notably adding to their efforts, and it was the home side who crashed over from short range early in the second half to reduce the deficit to 31-12, before McKinney went in for his second off a tip on from Craig Winton, before winger Marwick embarked on a mazy run, skittling several would-be tacklers, before carrying a couple to within inches of the line, where he popped to Paul Haggon to crash over for Leith's seventh and final try. Dannfald's excellent touchline conversion taking Leith to their final score of 45, before Liberton had the game's final say with another driving effort, and a close range pounce for a converted try and a final score of 45-19.

The boys were relatively happy with their efforts on the day with some excellent performances throughout the pack, and in achieving the bonus point win, and on a day in which the club fielded three sides for the first time in a generation, were delighted to take the win back to the clubhouse to celebrate with the other 2 sides.

Next up for the 1st XV is the visit of Trinity Accies to Academy Park on December 2nd. (President's Day, 2pm KO)

Scores:
Tries: Ross Marwick 2, Luke McKinney 2, Doug Watters, Toby Kirkwood, Paul Haggon
Conversions: Kenny Dannfald 5
Man of the Match: Marcos Teixeira

Leith
1 Thomas Choo Lawrie, 2 Craig Winton (17 Grant Aitken), 3 Joe O'Neil (16 Stu Wilson), 4 Michele Crolla (19 Pete Mitchell), 5 Toby Kirkwood, 6 Jamie Drummond (18 Paul Haggon), 7 Marcos Teixeira, 8 Luke McKinney; 9 Fergal MacNamara, 10 Ben Wilkinson, 11 Ross Marwick, 12 Stevie Muirden, 13 Doug Watters (20 Andrew Paterson), 14 Ross Kilgour, 15 Kenny Dannfald.