THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS

IN THEIR four Bell Lawrie Scottish Cup games to date, Knox Academy have run up a total of 217 points, but their home fourth round tie against Glasgow High tomorrow afternoon (2pm) will give them a truer test of their potential.

The Haddington school beat Craigmount HS 55-19, Musselburgh GS 47-0, Hawick HS 42-19 and Trinity Academy 73-10, with centre Kyle Adams scoring a hat-trick of tries in the latter three games.

According to the school’s Sports and Physical Activities Co-ordinator, Rory Couper, the Boroughmuir and Scotland club international XV winger, who looks after the 1st XV, “we have a fair chance of winning, if only for the fact that we have played four cup ties, and this will be Glasgow HS’s first cup outing. Cup rugby is always different and our boys may well cause an upset.”

Apart from the free-scoring Adams, captain and flanker Alex Spence is playing well enough to have earned a place in the Scotland Under-18 development squad, while No 8 Kris Patterson and scrum-half Euan Smith are in the Edinburgh squad.

“We don’t play school games outwith the cup,” stated Couper, “the boys mostly turning out for Haddington Under-18s, and we do have very close links with the rugby club through myself and their development officer Greg Munro.”

A meeting between teams from Galashiels and Selkirk is always guaranteed to raise the temperature and it will be no different this afternoon (2pm) when Galashiels Academy host Selkirk HS at either Netherdale or the school ground. A morning inspection will decide where the tie is played.

Graeme Marshall, head of P/E at Selkirk HS, had half his boys playing for the local Youth Club XV on Saturday when they drew 14-14 with the high-flying Hawick Wanderers.

The former Scotland cap also took great satisfaction that about 11 of the Selkirk XV who beat Stirling County in a Premier Division 2 match on Sunday were ex-pupils of his.

“As regards the cup game, it will be difficult for us, but certainly not impossible.”

In last week’s fourth-round games, Dollar Academy just edged out Edinburgh Academy 8-5, Heriot’s did well to beat Peebles HS 23-15, and Stewart’s-Melville showed no mercy to Strathallan, winning 68-0.

This article was posted on 18-Nov-2008, 08:36 by Hugh Barrow.