Kinross keeps nerve to kick Preston Lodge to title glory

Trailing 16-15 heading into the final minute the East Lothian side’s pressure eventually told and the hosts conceded a penalty which Kinross slotted over to spark celebrations after an 18-16 win.

Alastair Forsyth, the Scottish Rugby Union Council member for the Borders Region, then presented PL skipper Blair Cowan with the league Quaich and it has been some season for coach Mark Steedman and the men from the Pennypit.

They have now won 15 out of 15 league matches scoring 735 points in the process and their aim for the rest of the season now will be to finish the whole of 2011/12 campaign unbeaten, including winning the RBS Edinburgh Regional Shield and the national Shield event.

On Saturday Duns, who are second in the table, got off to a flying start and went 6-0 up.

Preston Lodge did not panic though and scored two well-worked unconverted tries to lead 10-6 at the break. They came from Paul Voy and Jonathan Brash and the visiting support who had travelled in good numbers were pleased.

Ten minutes into the second half some great set up work from Stuart McLean saw Kinross go in for his side’s third try and it was 15-6.

A converted try and a penalty swung things the hosts way until the tense finale when Kinross did the business.

Elsewhere in East One at the weekend Ross High got just their fourth league win of the season, victorious 13-10 at North Berwick. Portobello lost 27-14 at Berwick.

In RBS East Three the only match saw St Boswells win 19-3 at Walkerburn, but it did not affect the top end of the table.

The RBS Edinburgh Regional Bowl final between Edinburgh Northern and Dunbar was postponed with a new date as yet to be confirmed.

In RBS National One Edinburgh University Blues lost 14-5 at Langholm while Dunfermline defeated Livingston 57-0. The students’ loss leaves them only three points above second bottom Linlithgow and third bottom Garnock.