Corstorphine 25 - 30 Leith, Saturday 5th October

Match Report by Will Tuft

On a typically damp, bristling and very grey autumnal afternoon in the nation’s capital, Leith Rugby made the trek through independence marches to the other side of the city to take on Corstorphine’s Cougars looking to make amends for a home reverse to a visiting North Berwick side.

As the drizzle quickly turned to steady rain and the New Zealand contingent bemoaned their life choices, Leith kicked off the game amongst the umbrellas and waterproofs through the boot of perennial scoreboard botherer Kenny Dannfald and it was immediately evident that the rapidly softening conditions underfoot would play a significant part in the afternoon’s proceedings. The opening exchanges were fizzing with intensity as both teams looked to set a tone that could orchestrate a symphony of progressive and attacking rugby. Within six minutes, the men in blue and white struck the first blow through the metronomic Dannfald as an early penalty ensured a successful first visit into the Cougars 22.
Despite the ball being covered in the fresh cuttings of West Edinburgh’s foremost public park cum rugby pitch, it was Leith’s handling that caught the eye in the first quarter as they drew first blood through the fluid passing of the backline culminating in Kaharau Kaihe fending off the drift defence with his good arm to dot down in the corner. On this occasion, Dannfald’s metronome was unable to click into place to add the extras.

After a sustained period of Cougar pressure, the home side were able to add a couple of scores from diligent carrying and the visiting side infringing on several occasions to keep their own numbers ticking over.
The second quarter was typified by Leith fighting for every yard with the ball in hand as Paterson, Mitchell and Connelly dominated the fringes and Allen and McKinney galloped into the open field like prize stallions. These yards were tempered however by the visitors’ inability to stay onside, which led to known felon Will Tuft being sin binned for the cavalcade of team offences, in one of the greatest injustices since Gareth Gates not winning the first series of Pop Idol. The home side capitalised on the loss of the defensive equivalent of a revolving door by taking the lead.

These home scores were interjected by an excellently worked score from the Academy Park men as numerous phases of hard carries, drives and support lines meant that human wrecking ball Luke McKinney fought his way over the heavily defended line to level up the scores with the addition of Dannfald’s conversion on the stroke of half time.

As the hooped warriors ran downhill in the second half, it was clear that the home side could not handle the brutish physicality of Josh Campey at centre, nor the exocet running lines of Andrew Baxter who carved through the broken field defences like a machete through warm butter. It was these two who combined to send fleet footed Max Bowman dancing down the touchline to extend his try tally for the year and enable Leith to draw level.

As conditions deteriorated, hands became sodden and bodies began to be strewn across the field, it was the tight lines of Mitchell, James Nimmo and Fraser Forsyth that softened up the home defence for Dannfald and Campey to apply the killer one two to send the latter tumbling over the whitewash as Leith restored their lead with the addition of Dannfald’s extras.

The final quarter was characterised with excellent kick chases from Leith, where replacement winger Shaun Guesford harried and pressed the Cougars back three into numerous handling errors, and a succession of reset scrums from the aforementioned errors. As the afternoon drew out the final elements of rain from the saturated sky, it became clear that the home side had no key to unlock the Leith defence and in many instances, no manner of key would have sufficed to puncture what was a superb second half defensive effort to deny any bonus points for the team in red. Cougars had to settle for swapping penalties with Dannfald as the clock ran down and the visitors took away a well deserved bonus point victory from their travels to deepest, darkest Corstorphine.

It is a double header next week as Pencuik cross the bypass to face an Academy Park welcome.

Tries:
K Kaihe
L McKinney
M Bowman
J Campey

Conversions:
K Dannfald x2

Penalties:
K Dannfald x2