Camara faces six weeks on sidelines with ankle injury

Merchiston gave Scottish schools rugby a timely lift by finishing third overall in the prestigious two-day St Joseph’s rugby festival at Ipswich last weekend.

In the group stages, Merchiston finished second in their pool having defeated John Fisher School by 18-15 and Eltham College by 29-5 before losing to the tournament winners Brighton College 7-0.

That put the Colinton school into one of two groups of four competing for the Cup. Merchiston began on a strong note with a 10-0 victory over the hosts, St Joseph’s College.

But in their second game they lost to the eventual runners-up, Millfield School, before drawing with Royal Grammar School, Newcastle, to finish second resulting in Merchiston securing an overall third equal finishing position.

“It was an amazing effort, when you consider that overall we finished third behind Brighton College and Millfield School, two rugby giants,” said Roddy Deans, head coach at Merchiston.

A further honour was received by Merchiston when full-back Rufus Mclean was voted player of the tournament.

Meanwhile, in the second of the two rounds of inter-district matches, East again achieved a double over West by winning both under-16 and under-18 matches at Inverleith on Sunday.

At under-16 level, both sides put on a display of continuity rugby, and highlevel skills.

“This all forms part of the blueprint for Scottish rugby involving playing off the ten, taps at free-kicks and trying to keep the ball in play as much as possible,” said Sean Lineen, who heads up age-grade rugby at Murrayfield.

In the under-16 match East had to come back from trailing 19-0 midway through the first half before winning 40-24.

In a more physical under-18 match, East won 34-14. Robbie Mccallum, one of the winning side’s try scorers, was named as the most valuable player of the series. France forward Yacouba Camara will miss his side’s autumn international series with an ankle injury.

The Montpellier flanker, pictured right, who has won six caps since his debut against Italy in last year’s Six Nations, faces at least six weeks on the sidelines after suffering the injury in Sunday’s Champions Cup loss to Exeter..

The 23-year-old tweeted yesterday morning: “Ruptured ankle ligament 6 to 8 weeks out.”

Camara was the second player ruled out of France’s autumn programme over the weekend, following a nasty broken ankle which will sideline stand-off Camille Lopez for several months.

Guy Noves’ side play New Zealand on 11 November, South Africa the following week and Japan on 25 November.