Royal High School on course to take crown

ROYAL High School, past winners of the second-tier competition, have reached the semi-final of the Brewin Dolphin Scottish Schools Under-18 Plate after beating Kelso High School 47-7 in a match that underlined the Barnton school's resurgence this season.

Royal High, who last won the Plate when eventual Scotland caps Ben Cairns and Alan MacDonald were in the side, must wait to find out whether it will be Banchory Academy or Linlithgow Academy they face in the next round. Already into the final is Wellington School, who defeated Ayrshire rivals Belmont Academy 15-14.

Meanwhile, in the National Youth Under-18 Cup quarter- finals, Boroughmuir have a home tie against GHA on Friday night, while Musselburgh face title favourites and last season's beaten finalists Currie. The other two quarter-finals will see Highland face Aberdeen Grammar and Haddington play Dumfries.

Dumfries go into this match as the West league champions and showed their strength at the weekend by notching up a 48-5 win over West of Scotland.

Away from Cup and Plate rugby, George Watson's College achieved a 12-5 win over George Heriot's School in a competitive match on Saturday. Prop Chris Scott and flanker Matt Irvine scored Watson's tries and there was one conversion from scrum half Ali Harris. For Heriot's full back Matt Parks scored a try. Watson's face Robert Gordon's College on Saturday before taking part in the Merchiston Sevens at Colinton on Sunday.

Missing from the Merchiston tournament will be Stewart's-Melville who, on safety grounds, are adhering to a policy of playing under-18 rugby only when the "under 18 on 1 January" rule applies. Stewart's-Melville were in action on Saturday when they achieved a win over Edinburgh Academy. Both sides were weakened by the absence of their Edinburgh Under-18 representative players.