A 57-0 victory over Inverleith RFC helped dust off the cobwebs after a long break in league games. The last time the 1st XV played was 22nd January in the tight 15-9 league win over Leith RFC. Thankfully the stars aligned and with weather, covid and availability which allowed the penultimate home game of the season to go ahead.

The last league encounter with Inverleith back at the beginning of November, on what was an unbelievably wet, cold and windy day, the Cougars came away with a narrow 31-29 victory. A game that will not be remembered as a classic. However it set the tone for this weeks game as the Cougars where well aware that bottom of the table Inverleith had been capable of competing with the right game plan.

With an old boys pre match lunch arranged it meant that their would be a big (and loud) home support. The Cougars didn't disappoint as they got off to a quick paced start pressing Inverleith back into their own half for opening 10 to 15 mins scoring a couple of decent tries along the way. Inverleith lost two players in quick succession to injury which seemed to spell the end of any possible resistance they might have put up.

With the bonus point win all but secured by half time it would be Inverleith who pressed the Cougar line and tested the defence for the last few plays of the half. After several team infringements within 10 meters of the try line David Leach would be the unlucky player to receive a 'team' yellow card. This was the only point in the game where the visitors where able to threaten the goal line but the Cougar defence stayed strong and kept them out.

The Cougars continued to press in the second half and continued to dominate the set piece and kept the pressure and pace high on Inverleith.
As the tries continued to roll in the Cougars faced the last 15 mins with only 14 men as William Welsh took exception to yet another cheap shot
after carrying the ball hard at the Inverleith line. Unfortunately for William the ref happened to be standing next to him as he retaliated and gave the ref no option but to brandish his red card. A yellow card was also issued to an Inverleith player for his part in the disruption.

This didn't impact the flow of the game though and the Cougars continued to run in the tries. The final whistle went with the score line at 57-0. It would however be remiss of me not to mention that 'offload' from veteran Marc Maiden... since he hasn't stopped talking about it since!

Next week will be the last scheduled home game against Trinity, though it should be noted they haven't been able to field a team for many weeks and may well be automatically relegated by the time Saturday comes after another no fulfilment last weekend. We then face 4 away games against Penicuik, Hawick, North Berwick and Livingston to finish the season... so some very tough encounters to come and it would seem that results will be needed at Penicuik and North Berwick to swing the title in Cougar hands. A big few weeks ahead.