Linlithgow u18  33 –  24  North Berwick u18

Saturday 28 February 2026

Report by Gordon Muir

After a fallow four weeks since their last competitive action, Linlithgow u18s lined up at Mains Park on tacky soil and under leaden skies to play for a place in the last 4 of the 2026 East Cup. Lining up opposite were North Berwick, in the third encounter between the sides this season.

The two previous matches had bookended the league season and had both gone the way of Linlithgow – winning well away in North Berwick 35-50 on the sunny first day of the league and finishing strongly, 46-14, at home to clinch the Conference on the final day.  These results merited a measured optimism from the Young Reds, tempered by the absence of a few influential players for the home side and the knowledge that matches v North Berwick through the years have often been tight.

The visitors duly arrived with just 15 players – enough to get the game going, but leaving us facing the prospect of having to take players off to match up numbers should they have any injuries. We can’t blame the ones who turned up, of course, but it would have been nice if they could have brought a pal or two along.

North Berwick kicked off and not two minutes later we were down to 14-a-side, as one of their players went head-first into contact and had to go off with a head knock.  Greg was the unlucky Linlithgow player who had to be prematurely taken off to keep the game fair. Play restarted and both teams were clearly eager to achieve the fast start beloved of pundits in pitch-side booths and podcast studios up and down the land. Fierce carries were met by crunching tackles as each side attempted to get the upper hand. Linlithgow held the edge in terms of accuracy, but the old foe of discipline reared up again as a couple promising attacking platforms were undone by penalties to North Berwick allowing them to clear their lines.

The Reds had talked in the pre-match huddle about making intelligent decisions about where to play and had a clear game plan to relieve pressure by kicking for territory when play was in their 22.  The game’s first try came from just such a prudent decision, backed up with some sensational attacking flair. Ali B received the ball not far from the Reds line and sent a kick long toward the right touchline. A rapid chase was won by Alex E, who popped off the ground to Elliot, who played an outrageous flick into the path of the onrushing Ali B, chasing his own kick and outpacing the remaining North Berwick defence on an unstoppable line to score under the posts. Joe kicked the conversion to cap an excellent score and the Mains Park crowd all hoped it was a sign of things to come.

The second score came soon afterwards, with quite brilliant play seeing the Reds attack from inside their own half, keeping the ball alive with hard running and smart offloads linking between forward and backs as the ball finally came wide, outmanning the scrambling North Berwick defence and finishing with style as Amrit powered over in the corner. The tricky kick was missed and the score stood at 12-0.

Inevitably, the visitors managed to put together a period of pressure – once again assisted by the home side conceding back-to-back penalties which were punished by long and accurate kicking from the visiting 10 an accurate line-out work that led the away side deep into Reds territory. Despite some rugged tackling, the red wall was eventually breeched an North Berwick earned 5 points for their unconverted try. Back to a one-score game and the confidence was suddenly with North Berwick as they sought to find their way back to parity. 

That wasn’t to be as, just on the stroke of half time, Linlithgow once again demonstrated their prowess in the offloading game, allied to some smart decision-making on when to play through the middle and when to make use of the extra space on the pitch afforded by a 14-a-side game.  After working their way from deep in their own half up to the North Berwick 22, a smart kick into space in the corner was bungled by the fielding defender and Alfie R was first to react, chasing the ball over the line and pouncing on it to secure an excellent 80-metre score. Joe added the extras and half time arrived at 19-5 to Linlithgow.

In truth, the home team had played all the rugby, with NB’s attack looking fairly disjointed and where the home side’s magic hands seemingly saw every pass and offload stick, the visitors weren’t having the same success. The Linlithgow half-time talk therefore centred on the fact that the boys could really go on to a big statement win, if they could just cut out the penalties.

Reader, they couldn’t!

Nevertheless, it was the Reds who had the best of the early second half, scoring a fabulous try in the corner after five minutes, once again built on a fast, aggressive and accurate offloading game that North Berwick could not contain. 26-5.

North Berwick responded with a try from yet another penalty line out, crashing over to make it 26-12; but when Ewan glided in following yet another multi-phase attack to take it to 33-12 the contest was effectively over.

Effectively over, but not actually over: There was still time for a few more penalties, a Linlithgow yellow card (for accumulation) and 2 late North Berwick tries – including one resulting from a 5m line-out after Linlithgow had kicked the ball off thinking the game was over, in one of the more Keystone Cops endings to a game of school rugby that you’re likely to see.

There are some terrific positives to take from this game: With their tales up, this is some team: playing with flair, accuracy and confidence they would be hard for anyone to live with, and some of Saturday’s tries were among the best that they’ve scored all season.  There’s also a bit for us to work on around how to manage the game and try to get back on the right side of the referee, which in a closer game could have made a decisive difference. 

On a day of many tries and superb creative play across the back line, a special note goes to the forwards, who carried and tackled hard all day and created so much positive momentum: Captain Kai had one of his best games in a Reds shirt; Josh, Ross and Ruaridh seemed to be all over the pitch, snuffing out attacks, carrying hard into the defensive line and seemingly clearing every ruck; Martin looked absolutely assured standing in at hooker; Greg, restored to the field, looked determined to make up for lost time; Calum led from the front as he has done all season and created multiple line breaks; Amrit topped off a great all-round performance with a well-taken try; and how important it was to the Reds to have Ewan back, bringing his trademark energy, competitiveness and speed to the team. 

The Reds have been drawn away to Currie for the semi final, which is due to take place on 14th March.