Fraser’s late penalty grabs victory for Merchiston

Two of the top four schools in the Colt Conference this season, Stewart’s-melville College and Merchiston Castle, went head to head on Saturday at Inverleith, in a match that went to the wire and resulted in a 15-14 win for the Colinton visitors.

Both sides scored two tries, Charlie Farmer baggingabraceformerchiston and Aidan Cross and Matt Russell touching down for Stewart’s-melville, but it was a late penalty by Alex Fraser which gave Merchiston their win.

“This was strong advert for schools rugby.” said Merchiston coach Roddy Deans. The former Hawick flanker added: “Both teams were intent on playing with tempo and width. We managed to work a penalty in the last play and used our get-out-of-jail card.

“We have a real blend of experience from last year and youth, which is starting to gel nicely. Losing narrowly to Watson’s was frustrating, so it was good to win a close game and hopefully this gives us confidence for the rest of the season.”

In the other Colt Conference game, Strathallan ran in nine tries to defeat Dollar Academy 53-26 at Forgandenny. Wings Peter Wallwork and Reece Wilson and centre Andy Stirrat each scored a brace, with other tries by hooker Joe Halliday, Struan Griffiths and Charles Wall.

In club rugby, Ayr/wellington made it six wins from six matches in the Shogun Conference at under-18 level with a 31-19 victory over Stirling County at Millbrae while, at Meggetland, Boroughmuir had a comfortable 40-3 win over West of Scotland with tries by Andrew Murchison, Akira Samejima, Jo Dewar Stuart Dobson, Lawson Mcconnell and Callum Macgregor.

At the North Inch, Highland squeezed home against Perthshire with a 21-17 win thanks to tries by Kenzie Innes (2) and Cameron Cochrane, all converted by Hamish Mcwilliams. The remaining Shogun match, Biggar v Hamilton, did not go ahead due to the visitors’ shortage of players.