Merchiston eager to beat Heriot’s and line up rematch with Watson’s

George Watson’s College and Merchiston Castle School put on a top-drawer display of schools rugby in the final round of the Under-18 Colt Conference at Myreside on Saturday, resulting in a 29-22 win for Watson’s.

“This was a very tight and high quality match that could have gone either way,” said Watson’s coach Ally Donaldson, whose side scored tries through Alex Harley (2), Angus Hoffie, Callum Robertson and Ewan Craig, and two Cammy Scott conversions. For Merchiston, Rory Stewart Cox, Fin Stewart and Matthew Currie touched down, with Rory Thain kicking two conversions and a penalty goal.

These two sides could potentially meet in the semi-final of the Scottish Schools Under-18 Cup. For that to be achieved Merchiston would have to defeat a Heriot’s team fresh from their 32-12 victory over Glasgow Academy, in today’s quarter-final at Goldenacre.

The other semi-final will be between Dollar Academy, and St Aloysius College. Dollar progressed to the last four with a 37-17 win over Marr College thanks to a strong secondhalf performance.

Dollar appear to be hitting form, and confirmation of that came in their 61-7 Colt Conference win against Strathallan on Saturday, with a nine-try performance that included a brace each from Zak Mcmorran and Ross Mcknight and single contributions from Danny Robins, Michael Gray, Rob Alexander, Toby Douglas and Jamie Cruickshank. Eight of the Dollar tries were converted, six by Finn Mcilwraith and two by Cameron Purdham. The third Colt match gave Stewart’s-melville their first Under-18 Conference win after defeating Edinburgh Academy 15-12.

Disappointing though it was for Marr to lose in the cup, they still have involvement in the Under-16 Shield, the Troon school having reached the semi-final where they will face Stewart’s-melville College. The other Shield U16 semi is between Dunbar Grammar School and Earlston High School, who had an emphatic 52-14 quarter-final win over Glasgow Academy last week that included the rare statistic of two back rows, Ruairidh Lindsay and Sam Derrick, each scoring a hat-trick of tries.

In club rugby, Stirling County had a comfortable 52-0 win over Hamilton, while Biggar succumbed by 12-26 to Highland, whose tries were scored by Max Evans, Louis Petteranna, Jacob Powell and William Moncreiff. The other Shogun match resulted in a 19-9 win for Ayr over West of Scotland.