Leith kick off their pre-season fixtures on Saturday 30th August by welcoming an HMS Somerset team for a friendly game. The friggate will dock at Leith on Saturday morning, as the crew return to shore for the first time in 3 months, and we're delighted that Leith Rugby club will be their first port of call.

Leith are expected to field an experimental lineup, as Head Coach Ron Harris gets his first look at some of the club's new players, and examines some new combinations in the pack, and in midfield, where Club Captain Kenny Dannfald is expected to lineup at stand-off. With the 1st XV welcoming Dunbar next weekend, and the 2s travelling to Kinross, this weekend's fixture represents a welcome return to action following a month of invaluable pre-season work, and an opportunity to blow off some cobwebs.

We hope to see a big Leith crowd down to cheer on the boys, and to welcome our visitors from the Royal Navy.

HMS Somerset is a Type 23 frigate of the Royal Navy, and is named after the Dukedom of Somerset. She is the eleventh ship of the class to join the fleet since 1989, and entered service in 1996. The fourth Somerset to serve in the Royal Navy, she has inherited four battle honours from previous ships of the name; Vigo Bay (1702), Velez Malaga (1704), Louisburg (1758) and Quebec (1759). The previous ships all served during the 18th century and ensured that the name Somerset played a significant part in that period of naval history. More recently, in January 2015, HMS Somerset took part in the search for the crew of the Cyprus-registered cement carrier Cemfjord, which had capsized in the Pentland Firth. Later that year, on 23 April 2015, with the Border Force cutter Valiant, she intercepted the Tanzanian-registered tug Hamal in the North Sea about 100 miles off Aberdeen, leading to the seizure of more than three tons of cocaine, believed to be at the time the single largest seizure of a Class A drug in the UK. Earlier this year, in March, as the Russian destroyer Vice-Admiral Kulakov, a tanker and a tug entered the United Kingdom's exclusive economic zone, they were intercepted and escorted by Somerset.

We look forward to welcoming the team and their supporter's to Academy Park on Saturday for a good game of rugby, and to sharing a few beers post-match in the clubhouse.