Match Preview

Northern travel with a strong squad to face Dalkeith at Kings Park on Saturday for this year’s final fixture. It has been a development season for this Northern side, with a good number of new faces joining the cohort of veterans that saw them finish top of East 2B last season and there are good things to come in the approaching years.

In a tale not dissimilar to Jekyll & Hyde, the autumn and winter quarters pre-Christmas saw a run of defeats that sunk any chances of retaining their trophy (although the new-fangled triumvirate spilt of East 2 may have prevented that anyway). 2018 conversely has bubbled brightly and the visitors to Midlothian on Saturday are undefeated since Christmas in both league fixtures and friendlies.

The undoubted highlight of this for many was the explosive performance against our host for this weekend early in January, which saw Northern run out 57-14 victors. In what was a scintillating display of attacking prowess and defensive dominance, Dalkeith struggled and were taken apart over the course of 80 minutes. Despite this, they did show good resilience to avoid a collapse and in spurts demonstrated what they are capable of, particularly with their two tries, rendering Saturday’s fixture an interesting fixture for the neutral.

King’s Park is not the happiest hunting ground for Northern, and those who experienced their victory last year thanks to a late, dazzling Hugh Vermont kick, will hope to replicate the form that saw them take their only win there in the last 15 years. In a place of many disappointments over the years, these things should be savoured, and hopefully they can make it two years on the trot in terms of victories in enemy territory.

Packing down together in the front-row, at tight-head is Kit Walker, whose devastating runs in January gave Northern real momentum that they capitalised on with aplomb. At hooker, continuing his good run of form is Englishman Andrew Suttle with Tom Horton completing the power combo at loose-head.

In the second-row, continuing their partnership of nearly three years are captain and vice-captain Calum Harper and Paul Holland, with the former hoping for a memorable victory before he steps down from his role at the end of the season.

In the back-row, Stanley Lister brings his considerable bulk at 6, whilst Dominic Harrison offers fluidity and movement from openside. Completing the back-row at No.8 is the eclectic livewire South African Jeremy Dubrowksy.

At scrum-half, returning to the side following a period of baby-induced absentia is the dependable Irishman Barry O’Dea. Partnering him at stand-off is Aidan Gallagher who has enjoyed a good first season in Northern colours.

In the centres, it’s the familiar face of Robbie Brown at 12, with ‘Pans man also enjoying a good first season in Northern colours, as is reflected with his nine tries in all appearances. Matt Fry, another excellent 17/18 debutant joins him at outside centre.

In the back-three, Doug Younger moves from scrum-half to his more familiar berth of wing, looking to inject some pace into the Northern attack. Jake Letham adds to that pace from 15, whilst poacher Michael Mawdsley completes the trio, hoping to add to a career-best ten tries this season.

On the bench are Kristian Anderson and Adam Ozay covering the front-row, Jamie McCann covering second-row and Bob Mackintosh and Connor Forlow covering the back-row. Leading points scorer Andrew Spiller is the substitute half-back, whilst Crawford Leslie covers the back three.

ENRFC vs Dalkeith (KO 15:00, 7/4/2018 King’s Park): Letham, Young, Fry, Brown, Mawdsley, Gallagher, O’Dea; Walker, Suttle, Horton, Harper ©, Holland, Lister, Harrison, Dubrowksy. Subs: Anderson, Ozay, McCann, Forlow, MacKintosh, Spiller, Leslie.