After a month of hard work on the training pitch, our pre-season fixture schedule gets going on Saturday with a double header at Academy Park, with the visits of Forrester FP and Kinross Rugby.

Forrester, of 11-team East League 1, have happy memories of their last visit to Leith, walking off with the Rex Club Leith 7s title in April, and we’re delighted to welcoming them back to the club so soon. Some of our guys have been playing against Forrester on and off, subject to league status, for over 10 years now, and a competitive game is usually the result of the two sides getting together.

Kinross are also well kent faces around Leith, the two clubs having played one another in friendlies in each of the past 3 seasons and the mean from the Haugh are also an annual entrant at our 7s. The two clubs have also assisted one another over the past few seasons, with players moving in both directions to support Kinross and our 2nd XV.

The two games this weekend (Forrester, 1.30pm KO and Kinross, 3pm KO) are the first in a schedule of 7 warmup games for the Leithers, and is followed by the visits of the Scottish Prison Service RFC (Wednesday 9th August, 7.30pm KO), Bo’ness RFC (Saturday 19th August, 3pm KO) and HMS Somerset RFC (Tuesday 22nd August, 7.30pm KO) and a trip west to face Paisley RFC next Saturday 12th August, 3pm KO. The 12th will also see half the squad assist Caledonian Thebans with a friendly with Inverleith.

The playing squad has been split in half for the first few friendly engagements, so expect to see a number of combinations put to the test, as well as upwards of 10 club debuts, as new recruits make their bow in blue and white.

We look forward to welcoming Forrester and Kinross to Academy Park this weekend, to 2 good games and a few beers following.

It’s great to be back!

Squad vs Forrester (1.30pm KO)
1.Stuart Wilson, 2.Choo Lawrie, 3.Paul Allison, 4.Neil Paterson, 5.Thomas Anderson, 6.Ollie Main, 7. Ewan Murdoch, 8.Fraser Forsyth, 9.Ross Kilgour, 10.Doug Watters, 11.George Lees, 12.Andy Homer, 13.Steve Muirden, 14. Danny Ballesta, 15. Kenny Dannfald;
16.Willie Cook, 17. Ross Finlay, 18.Andy Shankley, 19. Andy MacIntosh, 20.David Robertson, 21. Fergus Murray, 22. Finlay Stewart.

Squad vs Kinross (3pm KO)
1. Conor Kerr, 2. Craig Winton, 3.Reece Barclay, 4. Brandon Donlevy, 5.Sam Davies, 6.Paul Haggon, 7. Marcos Teixeira, 8.David Meadows, 9.Russell Smith, 10.Ben Wilkinson, 11.George Easdon, 12.Jon Derrin, 13.Andrew Paterson, 14.Owen Jenkins, 15.Andy Barr;
16.Jamie Gentleman, 17.Stephen Baker, 18.Jose Manuel Trujillo Fleky, 19.David Baptie, 20. Jeff Laidman, 21. Aaron Kirk, 22. Tony Kestner, 23. Daniel Garrido Cordoba.