Fettes College 18 -12 North Berwick

NBHS travelled to Fettes College looking for a moral boosting performance ahead of a vital Scottish Schools Plate match against Dunbar GS later this week.

NB started strongly with aggressive rucking and straight running tactics that had the home team pinned in their own 22 for the first 15 minutes resulting in NB scoring two tries through Ross Wilson and Lewis Carmichael to take an early 12-0 lead.

Maybe it was a case of peaking too early as the team took their foot off the gas and allowed the hard working Fettes team back into the game. The Fettes centre, who was terrific all afternoon, was causing problems with his all round game and opened their account with a great penalty from just inside the NB half. A poor missed kick to touch by NB then saw Fettes spread the ball from one side of the pitch to the other ending up with their winger breaking a couple of covering tackles to score in the corner – 8-12 to NB and game on!

The half time talk from the coaches was about picking up the pace when we had the ball and line speed and first up tackles when we didn’t. Unfortunately at the start of the half a quick tap penalty and poor tackling saw Fettes dot down over the line and convert to take the lead for the first time in the match.

Despite winning the lions share of possession for the rest of the game slow ball, poor decision making and good defence meant that NB didn’t convert this into either territory or clear cut chances. Another penalty for the home team extended their lead and when the full time whistle went the disappointment on the faces of the NBHS players showed that they knew they had missed a great opportunity to seal a famous win

There was no lack of effort and some good individual performances but that I’m afraid was the problem. With the exception of their number 13, Fettes didn’t have any outstanding individuals but they played as a team and their collective desire was greater than the visitors and in a tight game sometimes that is the difference between a win and a loss.

Hopefully the lessons will be learnt. They will certainly need to be against a strong and committed Dunbar GS team!