Leith 37 - 0 Trinity

Match Report by Kevin Greenan.

Leith welcomed local rivals Trinity to Academy Park, looking for a 3rd win on the bounce to keep their promotion hopes alive, but conscious that the visitors were in fine form, with 4 wins from their previous 5 league games.

Leith started the game strongly putting Trinity under pressure straight from the kick off, and forcing a turnover. Leith’s forwards carried strong but a knock on in contact stopped the attack. Leith were trying to keep the ball alive to help their running game, but were perhaps forcing things too much, as another knock-on from an offload off the deck would suggest. Leith’s Coach Greenan passed on instructions and this seemed to do the trick, resulting in better control at the ruck area. Leith were dominating the breakdown, and were awarded a penalty 10 metres from the try line after Trinity strayed offside. Captain Stu Wilson elected to go for the posts and Ben Wilkinson duly obliged with a successful kick. 3-0.

Shortly afterwards, Wilkinson used the wind to his advantage with a great up and under - Craig Smith was chasing the kick and with Trinity’s fullback unsure let the ball bounce, and Smith got a hand to it but unfortunately was unable to catch it when a clear run to the try line was inevitable. Leith took advantage again with the wind and scrumhalf David Somerville put in a box kick which Andrew Baxter was able to catch ahead of the opposition fullback. The Trinity winger worked hard to track back to tackle Baxter but to no avail as Baxter did a switch with his winger Nick Andrews for a walk in try. 8-0.

Leith continued to control the game nullifying any attack from Trinity, and were given another penalty for a high tackle. Wilkinson kicked in to the corner and from the resulting line out move, some slick passing from Wilkinson and Craig Williamson released Smith, who ran a hard inside line and was tackled short, but managed to pop the ball to the supporting Luke McKinney for an easy run in. Con good Wilkinson. 15-0 at half time.

Leith showed good control of the ball at the start of the second half, and from another high tackle penalty, again went to the corner, where a good take from Forsyth set up the maul, which rumbled forward and lock Neil Paterson dived over the tryline. Con good Wilkinson. 22-0. Leith made a couple of changes resulting in MOTM Somerville moving to outside centre, and it wasn't long before he was enjoying his new surroundings, as he intercepted the ball just inside the Leith half. For the second game running it was a foot race to the line, but this time Somerville managed to out sprint the Trinity defence to touch down for the bonus point try and a 27-0 lead.

Leith were now in full swing, and this showed when a move from the training ground resulted in Baxter being tackled just short but Fergal MacNamara was on hand to pick quickly to score, with the conversion good from Kenny Dannfald for 32-0. Leith saved their best try till last as MacNamara put in a chip kick which Andrew Paterson caught and stepped inside the fullback and was scragged, but a good offload back to MacNamara allowed the half back to spin wide to wing Ross Marwick. Quick ball from the resulting tackle, allowed Dannfald to put McKinney through a gap, and he fixed the last defender and passed to Wilson, and the skipper got in on the action, rounding off a great try. Final score 37-0, and as a great team performance, that rewarded the hard work put in at training.

Check out all but the final try (SD card ran out!) here.

Leith: Wilson (c), Winton, Nimmo, N.Paterson, Forsyth, Haggon, Drummond, McKinney; Sommerville, Wilkinson, Andrews, Williamson, Smith, Nawrocki, Baxter. [Reps: Kirkwood, Crolla, Teixeira, A.Paterson, MacNamara, Dannfald, Marwick]

Tries: Andrews, McKinney, N.Paterson, Sommerville, MacNamara, Wilson
Cons: Wilkinson, Dannfald
Pen: Wilkinson
MOTM: Sommerville