Highland fought hard and maintained their unbeaten home record but it was not quite enough to see them progress to the national cup quarter finals.
Highland dominated the early exchanges and a series of pick and drives in the opposition 22 resulted in space opening out wide and good movement of the ball saw Hamish Hepburn go over in the corner to open the score. Hamish hit the post with his difficult conversion attempt. And the score remained 5-0.
Portobello struck back just before the midpoint of the first half with good control of the ball seeing their powerful N0.8 cross the line. The conversion was also missed in the increasingly poor conditions and the scores were now level.
Highland spent the latter part of the first half in the Portobello 22 but good defence combined with some poor decision making resulted in no further scores.
HT 5 – 5

Highland got the best possible start to the second half when Fionnlagh Call kicking from deep in his own half followed his own ball catching it on the bounce and outstripped the defence to score in the corner. Hamish was unlucky again with a kick from out wide.
The visitors responded quickly and good play from the backs was them find the space to go over. The first successful kick of the day saw Highland go behind for the first time.
Highland started to press again but in the deteriorating conditions but handling was letting them down some indiscipline from the opposition 9 saw him yellow carded and it was more than disappointing that Highland leaked another try with the opposition down to 14 men.
10 -17 down and with 10 minutes left, Highland really dug in John Falconer and Murdo Paterson making some big carries in the now pouring rain. The forwards as a unit working really hard to crash the ball up to the Portobello try line where Johnny Grant pick from the base of a ruck and dived over to take us to within two points. Hamish Hepburn slotted the kick and the scores were level.
Highlands tails were up and the rain was now tipping down, deep in the Portobello 22 and with a succession of penalties we closed in on the winning score. Deep into overtime the game was halted for a serious injury to an opposition player and with that the referee blew for full time and the game was over.

Given the conditions it was a great game of rugby with both sides giving a good sized crowd a game worth watching. Highland can hold their heads up having maintained the unbeaten home record but ultimately it is the visitors who will progress in the cup.
Good luck to Portobello in the quarter finals, they played the game in a great manner and the players were a credit to their club both on and off the pitch.