Schools rugby: Merchiston sign off with a win

Merchiston signed off a successful season with a comfortable 34-10 win over Newcastle Grammar School at Colinton on Saturday in one of the few schools game to go ahead in
Edinburgh.

Scotland under-17 cap Magnus Bradbury scored two of his side’s six tries and there was one each from Dougal Balfour, Gavin Parker, Josh Barton and Henry Slater. Scrum-half Douglas Crawford kicked two conversions.

Merchiston now focus on sevens rugby and this weekend they head off to the north of England for the Durham Sevens as part of their preparation for tournaments in Scotland.

Another game that defied the winter conditions was Heriot’s match with Howe of Fife resulting in a 31-0 win for the Goldenacre side, whose tries were scored by Andrew Mawbey, Finn Murphy, Robert Walker, Marcus Campbell and Ben Porteous.

There was success for Cupar rugby last week, however, when Bell-Baxter High School secured their place in the Brewin Dolphin Scottish Schools under-16 Plate final after defeating Wellington School 52-19 in last week’s semi-final in Fife.

Centres Callum Harris and Euan Muir, together with full-back Keiran Bremner, each scored a brace of tries, the other touchdowns coming from stand-off San Roman and wing Kieran Brough.

Bell-Baxter will now meet Jedburgh Grammar School in the final to be played on the back pitches at Murrayfield on a date yet to be agreed.

At under-18 level in the Plate competition there was further frustration when the semi-final between Kelvinside Academy and Marr College was yet again postponed, this time because of a frozen pitch at Balgray on Saturday.

“We had hoped to get the game played soon but it’s very difficult to find dates at this time of year with half term and with prelims,” said Kelvinside Academy’s coach, David Wilson. The game has now been rearranged for Saturday 23 February.

The side which wins the rescheduled semi-final at Balgray will face Galashiels Academy, who secured a narrow 5-0 quarter-final win over Madras College at Netherdale last week, No 8 Josh Irvine scoring the decisive try.

The Balgray clash was not the only frost victim on Saturday. The game between Hutchesons’ Grammar School and Dollar Academy at Auldhouse was called off and there was a similar fate for the match between Glasgow High School and St Aloysius College, while in the east of the country Edinburgh Academy had to abandon any idea of playing rugby because of waterlogged pitches.