North Berwick Prove Too Strong for Knox U15s

On a lovely sunny morning, the two teams agreed to play a match over three periods of 20 minutes.

This was also the first time Knox Academy wore their new strips which were provided through generous sponsors Future Green Technologies, Ritchie's Gas, Craigentinny Dental Practice and Green's of Haddington.

North Berwick started much the stronger and Knox quickly found themselves three tries down within the first 15 minutes. This was partly down to North Berwick's good play, but also due to some very poor defending by Knox. The coaches shuffled the back division around which made things a little better allowing Knox to hold on to possession and they gradually made their way into North Berwick's half. After some good short drives and mini rucks from the forwards, Aarron Thomson set up Stuart McQuade who powered over from short distance. Knox were back in the match, but not for too long as their weak defence once again let the hosts in for another easy try.

Period 1: North Berwick 22 : Knox Academy 5

Knox started well in the second period and their forwards kept hold of the ball for several phases in attack as they camped on the North Berwick line. The ball was eventually released to the backs where Finn Connell straightened the line brilliantly to release Gregor Booth into space. He still had a lot to do, but beat his man down the wing to score in the corner.

North Berwick bounced back though and made a couple of strong breaks, good defence by Ewan Jack, James Martin and Alasdair Macfarlane held them out until eventually they squeezed over for another score.

Period 2 - North Berwick 29 : Knox Academy 10

The final period was again reasonably even although Knox were beginning to apply more pressure. A solid scrum on the half way line led to good ball for the backs and Fraser Wright released Alasdair Macfarlane hitting the line at speed and offloaded to James Dewar who scampered over to score the try of the match. Shortly after, Dewar had another chance as he almost latched on to a
chip through which agonisingly was knocked on. However, North Berwick were still applying pressure through their strong runners and scored the final try of a thoroughly entertaining match.

Final score - North Berwick 36 : Knox Academy 17