NBHS visited Goldenacre to face a Geroge Heriots School in what turned out to be a tense and highly competitive game.

Heriots came out of the blocks quickly and put NBHS under pressure with astute kicking, ferocious defence and a good variety to their game, particularly in the lineout area. It was therefore against the run of play that NBHS took the lead through full back Gregor Wood who collected a rare poor kick by the opposition on the half way line to set off on a mazy run that under up under the stick – a great try!

The coaches hoped this would spark NBHS into action, however the team continued to react to what the opposition were doing instead of taking the initiative themselves and playing with pace so it was no surprise when Heriots scored a carbon copy try, their fullback bursting through some weak tacking. A further penalty by the host saw NBHS behind 7-10 at half time.

To be fair the boys realised that they needed to improve both individually and as a collective unit and the started the second half with a try by Scott Burnside who was impressive throughout. Back came Heriots though and they scored following a quick pick and go to retain the lead 12-15.

With the set piece now starting to function as expected and with the ball being recycled quickly NBHS began to assert a level of dominance and after a few close calls Harvey Elms scored out wide and then slotted a difficult conversion which meant that only a try would win it for Heriots. A number of long range breakouts by the hosts in the final 5 minutes had the visiting support holding their breath but scrambling defence and a fine try saving tackle from Gregor Wood saw NBHS home 19-15.

This was a great game between two evenly matched teams that could have gone either way and it was credit to the NBHS boys that they dug deep to edge it.

NBHS travel to Fettes Collage next week in what is expected to be an equally competitive game