Merchiston Castle 3 - 7 Stewart's Melville: Warnock's try sends Stew-Mel back to the final

On a heavy pitch and under miserable overhead conditions Stewart's Melville had just enough firepower to overcome a well-organised Merchiston side that for the most part played with composure, but which, throughout the match, never threatened their opponents' line.

Stew-Mel owed their win very much to the second-half performance of a forward pack that became more and more dominant, and also their ability to ride out a ten-minute spell that straddled the interval when they were without their centre Alistair Hagart, yellow-carded for a technical offence.

Merchiston looked to have the match in control for much of the second half, winning the territorial battle with shrewd kicking from stand-off Sam Hidalgo-Clyne and positive play from the outside backs, and it was Hidalgo-Clyne who opened the scoring with a penalty.

Encouraged by their committed defensive performance at the end of the first half, Stew-Mel began to move into the ascendancy and from a scrum on the Merchiston 22 the visitors struck decisively with a loop move in midfield between Andrew Warnock and skipper Mike Crawley that allowed Warnock to score under the posts and then convert his try.

Merchiston Castle: H Clark; G Skivington-Jones, M Paterson, J Nutton, M Jackson; S Hidalgo-Clyne, M Watson; M. Roger, D Muir, G Wilson, D Morrow, J Jones, P Baker, A White, D Muir. Subs used: A Paterson, D Duff, F Donaldson.

Stewart's Melville College: S Cook; A Hughes, A Hagart, M Crawley, M Batchelor; A Warnock, J Gilfillan; M Campbell, J Cook, G Turner, B Docherty, R McPhail, N Bowie, B Johnstone, A Wilson. Sub used: C Taylor.

Scorers: Merchiston Castle – Pen: Hidalgo-Clyne. Stewart's-Melville: Try: Warnock. Con: Warnock.

Referee: A Macmenemy (Gala).