Edinburgh claim junior cup prize at Burnbrae

The mid-term school holidays means a pause in fixtures but that allows space for representative rugby and, on Saturday, Edinburgh claimed the Junior 1872 Cup on Saturday by defeating the Glasgow Warriors combination 19-5 at Burnbrae.

Edinburgh, drawing players from the Capital, East Lothian and the Borders, scored tries by wing Ryan Daley (George Watson’s College), Rudi Brown (Merchiston Castle/melrose Wasps) and Roly Brett (Melrose Wasps).

In the under-16 version of the competition, Glasgow Warriors achieved a 21-14 win over Edinburgh, whose tries came from Gregor Thomson (Stewart’s-melville College) and Archie Williams (Dunbar GS), both converted by Conor Mcalpine (George Watson’s College).

Meanwhile, in the Scottish Schools Under-18 Cup, Glasgow High School produced a sensational result by knocking out the defending champions Merchiston Castle School at Old Annniesland last week. High School’s director of rugby Finlay Gillies described the win as a “shock” result but not a “fluke”.

Merchiston will aim to bounce back this weekend when the Colinton school host an ambitious crossborder tournament.

Bedford College, Seaforth College and Ballymena Academy are the nonscottish schools taking part and will join George Watson’s College, Dollar Academy and Merchiston.

Tournament director Roddy Deans has also taken the significant step of inviting club sides Stirling County and Boroughmuir.

He said: “I felt it was important that we were pro-active in establishing a schools/club link.”

Deans has regularly taken the Merchiston side to the prestigious St Joseph’s festival, but with rumours that the tournament might be in doubt in future years, Merchiston have seized the moment to stage their own version.

Merchiston’s eight-team tournament will take place over Saturday and Sunday this weekend.