Stew Mel vs Biggar, 9/3/02

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Squad

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

A couple of changes from the Musselburgh victory a couple of weeks ago, with Stuart Bartwicki and Steven Laurie replacing Mark Mateer and Mark Paton respectively.

Training has been excellent this week and the boys seem up for it. The main sentiment from the chats this week is to have no regrets. We have to go for it and really take Biggar on. We are all looking forward to probably the biggest game at Inverleith since the Musselburgh promotion decider in 1993, and are all looking for a similar result.

Riggers

Match Report

(To follow)

Riggers' Review

Well, two games to go, and still promotion is just in our hands, although we now need to pick up a try scoring bonus point along the way. You can't really see Biggar losing at Hartree Mill, although I'm sure their games with Haddington and H/A will be close, so we really must firstly concentrate on winning our games and hope, along the way, that we can score 4 tries. Our thoughts have already turned to Auldhouse this week, with the game taking on even more significance after the draw on Saturday. The final whistle sounded to an eerie silence at Inverleith on Saturday, and I think, along with many others there, that nobody had really contemplated the game ending in a draw. I know I had thought about winning and losing the fixture, but the possibility of the draw had never entered my thoughts.

I felt it was a pretty good match to watch, and there were plenty of positives to take from it. When you consider how much was at stake, it was quite an open game. Biggar, by far, dominated the first half hour of play, but our defence was resolute, and we looked capable of holding them out. Biggar spend most of their time attacking the blind side and they do this with great purpose and effect. We looked dangerous on the counter attack and were putting plenty width on the game, something we had worked at all week. It had been the plan to attack from everywhere on the pitch and to try and run the heavier Biggar pack off their feet. We knew they hadn't played for a month due to the weather, so were hopeful of being more match sharp than they were. To an extent, this strategy worked, however, we were continually punished in good positions by the referee for various infringements. It is very frustrating to have strung five or six phases together, to then be penalised at the breakdown situation, especially when we finally had the opportunity for our backs to run against their forwards.

The second half was dominated by Stew/Mel, but the winning score just wouldn't come. Fraser Pollock was unlucky with a couple of kicks in a very difficult wind which would have sealed the win, but, considering Fraser has kept us in the promotion hunt with his kicking, then you can't be too unhappy with his efforts.

The team on the whole played pretty well. Before the game, we knew our scrummaging would come under pressure, and Tuesday night was spent scrummaging against the Trinity pack down at Bangholm. Trinity had given us a torrid time in the scrum in our pre-season friendly, and did so again on Tuesday night. It is great credit to Si Rowan, Cadz and Ben that they scrummaged so well on Saturday. We know we face another tough time this week, so the hard work is really only beginning. The lineout, after its poor showing against Musselburgh, was also back to near its best, with Cadz throwing very well.

Each player contributed heavily to the performance on Saturday, and you can't really ask for any more than that. Whilst it would be unfair to single individuals out on Saturday, it really is only fair to mention Stewart Bennet's performance. Benzo was outstanding on Saturday, putting in massive tackles, supporting the backs and, if we kept stats like they do in American Football, he would have been credited with about 200 yards when carrying the ball. What makes Benzo's performance even more praiseworthy was that his wife went into labour at 9 am on Saturday morning. It would have been easy for his mind to be elsewhere, but thankfully we got a massive performance from him.

It was great to see the school 1st XV down watching, and they, along with the big crowd, provided tremendous support for the team. Hopefully they will all come again for the final league match with Dundee and then the Shield Semi-final with Kirkcaldy.

Riggers

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