Muir keep up fine form in U18 Shogun conference

Boroughmuir continued what has been an excellent season so far in the under-18 top-tier Shogun Conference with an emphatic 72-15 win over Hamilton to stay top of the table.

Head coach Scott Anderson, however, knows that harder matches lie ahead.

He said: “We’ve made good progress in the Conference for the under-18s but the next two games before the October break – against West away and Ayr at home – will be more of a test for us.”

The high points tally resulted from a 12-try haul that included a hat-trick from centre Ben Mackintosh and a brace each for back row Gavin Inkster and centre Cameron Hogg, together with single contributions from hooker Cameron Ritchie, full-back Adam Jacques, centre Craig Stewart, prop Paul Bogie and back-row Matthew Crawford.

Stand-off Calum Anderson converted five of his side’s tries and there was a further two-pointer from centre Stuart Dobson.

Stirling County kept up the pressure on the leaders with a 55-12 win over Highland in Inverness. Stirling Academy manager Stewart Milne said: “We had a few injuries, so it was good to see new boys stepping into the team and playing very well.”

Stirling’s tries came from centre Daniel Hull, standoff Mattie Mckinnon (2), wing James Isgrove, back row Tomoki Hayashi (2), second rows Stuart Lang and Finlay Macdonald and replacement Tom Spinks. For what is a young Highland side, there were tries from wing Cameron Macintosh and flanker Owain Leeming.

In the other Shogun match, West of Scotland continued their resurgence with a 45-7 win over Biggar, but at under-16 level Biggar turned the tables, winning 45-14 with tries from Chris Brett, Louis Henderson, Aaron Millar, Rhys Campbell (2) and Murray Lean (2)

For schools rugby it was a blank Conference weekend but Watson’s beat Heriot’s 38-0 in a friendly.