On Sunday 15th May a squad of 20 headed to a 15 a side tournament at Currie that had attracted the cream of S2 teams across Scotland. Billed as an unofficial National Cup, 8 top representatives from the West (GHA & Ayr), North (Mackie & Highland), Central (Stirling County & Madras) and Edinburgh & South (Currie & North Berwick) made up 2 groups of 4. The format was 15 minutes each way with the group winners playing each other in the final and the runners up playing a 3rd/4th play off.

For many of the NB boys this was their first game for two months and it showed in the first match against GHA. In an error strewn game from both sides NB eventually came away with a 7-0 thanks to 2 tries from Lachlan Stewart.
[Editors Note : remember it is 3 points for a try and 1 point for a conversion at this level].

Next up were the highly impressive Madras side and by half time NB were 3 tries to 0 down. However the boys upped the pace in the second half and scored 2 quick tries. In the end however the game was lost 15-7 but the team knew that the 2nd half performance meant that they should be confident that they could match any team on the day

The last group game was against Mackie and it seemed that tries from Gregor Tait, Mac Jerome and Alex McKay (2) had put the game safe but credit to Mackie they came back, due in part to some slack NB play, which led to a nervous end to the game. However the game was won 14-11 and NB were through to the 3rd/4th place play off against Ayr.

The final game was a great match between two evenly matched teams and the lead changed hands several times. NB led 8-6 at half time and 11-9 with 8 minutes to go. However as the NB injury count mounted (which led to uncontested scrums) and the legs tired after 2 hours of rugby, Ayr scored 3 late tries to eventually run out 22-11 winners

Madras beat hosts and pre-tournament favourites Currie 7-3 in the Cup final which just demonstrated the fantastic effort the boys had put in during the pool game against Madras

Every single NB player did themselves and the Club proud against high quality competition that included clubs whose senior sides are Premiership 1 teams and to finish 4th was well deserved. Time for the summer break now boys!!!!!!

Thanks must go to Currie RFC for the first class organisation on the day.

Author : D. Mackay