Stew Mel vs Ayr, 17/10/09

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Squad

The Stewart's Melville FP RFC team to play Ayr at Inverleith on Saturday, kick off 3 pm, is:

Fairly extensive changes to the squad this week, with Colin Phillips on holiday and Paul Voy, Craig Marshall and Seumas Mackenzie all injured after the West of Scotland game. Rob Patterson also features for the 2nd XV this week.

The West game was, incidentally, Marsh's 51st for the club - congratulations to him on joining the '50 Club'.

Ruairi moves up from the bench to replace Colin in the front row, while Liam replaces Marsh in the centre after a fine second half display at Burnbrae last week.

Harry claims the wing berth from Seumas and Stu Ker starts at 9, while we are delighted to welcome our assigned Glasgow pro Calum Forrester to the back row.

There are a couple of old friends on the bench this week in the shape of Primmy and Stath, both of whom have impressed for the 2s in recent weeks after returning from serious injury. Stath was also on the bench the last time we welcomed Ayr to Inverleith - here's hoping for a similar result this time around!

This is going to be another stern test for our young team, so your support would be particularly welcome this week.

If you are coming down, please allow plenty of time for your journey, as there are major roadworks between Inverleith and Goldenacre at the moment.

Mike

Match Report

Stewart's Melville 1st XV certainly took up where they had left off last week when we met Ayr, last season's Scottish champions, at home this weekend.

From the kick-off, Colleges played with the same commitment as they had shown in the second half of last week's match against West. The home side went about their business as if they were the team currently second from the top of the league, not their opponents. And at times we could have been mistaken for the team who are to participate in the British & Irish Cup.

We matched the Millbrae men from the start, and then, as our confidence and their disbelief grew, we began to take control of the game. We forced our guests into making errors, and they obliged by making quite a few, leading to us being rewarded with a penalty. Stuart Ker slotted neatly between the posts to put us in the lead after only 11 minutes. This settled our nerves, but, on the other hand, sent our visitors into a spin, and they duly gave away yet another penalty.

This time Stu did not go for goal but kicked for touch, giving us an excellent platform from which to launch a more ambitious attack. This we did from the good lineout that followed. A combination of Sam's inch perfect throwing and strong lifting by our props let the jumper palm the ball to Jamie Allan, who stormed through at the angle, evading the feckless Ayr defence to crash over for a try. We converted, taking our score to 10-0 inside the first quarter.

Ayr did have a little territory in the opening forty, during which the referee chose to reward the men from Millbrae with a penalty that Frazier Climo converted at around the half hour mark. But we definitely had the champs rattled: the game was going our way.

The Ayr players were bitching amongst themselves, and, each time there was a scrum, we heard the opposition complaining to the match officials and each other about our pack "going in too low" or "going in too soon". We were, at this point of the match, really buoyed up - we were beginning to believe.

Then, before the break, our useful tighthead Ross took an ankle knock and left the field for treatment, followed shortly after by our try scorer Jamie, who got a nasty cut below his ear that required stitches. Now with two replacements on, both of whom were returning from long term injury - Andy Statham in the front row and Rob Primrose at scrum half, with Stu having replaced Jamie at stand off - we adjusted quickly and went into the dressing room at half time 10-3 up.

After the break, we were straight on the offensive and in the Ayr '22', where we won yet another penalty. Unfortunately Stu was off target. Ayr hadn't looked as if they would be able to get organised, never mind score, but this miss seemed to galvanise the lacklustre visitors. On our five metres, Dunlop peeled off the back of the scrum to pass a great ball to Hunter, who came through at pace to touch down. Climo was again on target with his conversion, bringing both sides level. At the restart, Ayr were penalised for going offside, and this time Stu made no mistake with his kick, putting us in the lead once again.

Then we conceded a penalty, but, fortunately, it was Climo who mis-kicked this time. The mutterings of discontent from amongst the Millbrae support became more audible. The counter melody was provided by the home support's sotto voce, "Can we do it, is this our day?" Sadly for us, however, our visitors had an alternative ending in mind. Ayr stand-off Climo made a blistering run before offloading to Stewart, who battled his way through our defence before passing for flanker Burke to snatch their third try. We did not lie down at this - but we did permit that man Burke to make a super run to grab the bonus point with a fourth try.

In the dying minutes, we besieged the Ayr line in an attempt to get a consolation try, but it just didn't happen.

Our team were all heroes today. Our forwards put in an exceptional performance, both in the lineout and scrum. Calum Forester, our draft player from Glasgow Warriors, appeared to enjoy playing at No.8 just as much as we enjoyed watching him. He constantly menaced the Ayr defence and played his part in destroying their attack with a zeal that perhaps suggests that he's destined for bigger things.

"Playing a simple game, simply" was how Gordon Rigby summed up the better periods of our performance. Let's hope, when we travel to Goldenacre next week, that we play as we did in the first forty against Ayr and in the second half against West - if we do, we'll pick up points.

Today, the full time palindromic score of 13-31 was undeserved for both sides - but for different reasons.

Mercury

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