North Berwick produced a superb final quarter to break a resilient Duns side on Saturday, running out convincing 44-0 winners.

The county club were captained by Cal Mark with regular skipper Adam Macnair not available, while Jonny Riddell, a regular in the early weeks of the season, was also missing due to work commitments.

North Berwick kicked off but struggled to get the ball back thereafter, with the hosts enjoying the majority of possession and territory. The visitors struggled to get to grips with the referee’s interpretation of the breakdown, and gave away a number of penalties, but none of those were within kicking range for the hosts.

Influential stand-off Liam West then kicked a pair of penalties to put Rhodri Thomas’ side 6-0 to the good inside the opening quarter.

Ten minutes later, Duns coughed up the ball inside their own half, and Mark worked the ball to Kyle Hamilton, who drew the Duns winger to send Murray West away up the touchline. He had enough pace to get in at the corner, and his brother added an excellent conversion to make it 0-13.

They took that lead into the half-time break, and it took them just three minutes after the resumption to register their second try. Some good work by the pack, with Ben Inglis to the fore, took North Berwick close, and Murray West was on hand to capitalise for his 18th try of the season. His brother could not convert this time, but going into the final half-hour, the West brothers had scored all 18 of North Berwick’s points, without reply from the hosts.

Duns tried to get themselves back into the game, but it was a scrappy affair, and Mark found himself on the wrong side of the referee, spending 10 minutes in the sin-bin. He was joined minutes later by a pair of Duns players, Richard Hume and Lewis Craik, meaning that when the North Berwick skipper returned, he did so against a 13-man Duns side.

And as the match entered its final quarter, the visitors took control. Replacement front-row Reece Patterson crossed for two tries to secure the bonus point, before Hamilton and Gareth Walker, who had also come off the bench, went over to give the scoreline an emphatic look at full-time. Liam West was on superb form with the boot, adding all four of the conversions.

NB hope to maintain their good form, blemished only by defeat to Berwick a fortnight ago, at Hawick Harlequins on Saturday.