Stew Mel vs Biggar, 17/12/05

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Squad

The Stewart's Melville FP RFC team to play Biggar at Inverleith on Saturday, kick off 2 pm, is:

Another must win fixture, after last week's disappointing performance against Currie. The lads are up for it, and I trust you are, too - sod the Christmas shopping, see you at Invers.

Malky's Musings

In the match programme, Gordon described Saturday's clash with Biggar as a classic 8 pointer, and a game which we must win if we were to avoid a swift return to Premier 2. Thankfully, the team dug deep for the eighty minutes and overcame a combative visiting side. Our defensive display was solid, we demonstrated an excellent work ethic, and, most encouragingly, we looked threatening with ball in hand. Indeed, it appears as though the players had taken heed of Benzo's advice that they should go out and express and enjoy themselves on the pitch.

Biggar played with the wind in the first half, and it was clear from the outset that their tactics were to kick deep and to pin us back in our own half. The visitors opened the scoring with only two minutes on the clock as Quintan Sanft converted a penalty awarded for handling in a ruck. We were forced to absorb wave upon wave of Biggar runners during the early exchanges, and our challenge was made more arduous as we were regularly conceding penalties at the breakdown. Our defence held firm, however, with some ferocious tackling from the back row and both Graham Shiel and Andrew Easson in the midfield.

Our attacking intentions were made clear on around 10 minutes when we moved the ball wide on our own 22 and Andrew Easson barged past his opposing man before drawing the fullback and releasing Richard Borthwick. Only an excellent covering tackle from the Biggar right wing stopped Borth from opening our account. We did not have to wait long for another searing break, as, on 15 minutes, Shiely created space for Dave McCall with a neat inside ball on our own 10 meter line. Dave split open the Biggar defence and demonstrated just how talented a runner he is by stepping the full back before sprinting in to touch down under the posts. Borth converted to make the score 7–3.

Our visitors narrowed the gap to one point through a well struck penalty goal, and we suffered a significant blow on 32 minutes when Borth was yellow carded for handling in a ruck. Biggar also suffered a reverse as they temporarily lost both half backs to injury. With five minutes left in the half, another penalty gave our opponents the lead, and it appeared as though we would trail narrowly at the interval. Two minutes into injury time, however, our new prop Hotili created space for Dave McCall on the Biggar 22, and our winger again outstripped the visiting defence to score under the posts. Nicky Wood converted to give us a 14–9 half time lead.

The second half was a stop start affair, punctuated by David Jack's all too frequent blasts on the whistle. We continued to tackle well, and it looked as though the momentum was firmly turning in our favour when a penalty allowed Borth to extend our lead to 17–9. But the game took another twist on 52 minutes when Stuart Clark received our second yellow of the game, again for slowing down ball at the breakdown. Biggar took advantage of their extra man in the pack and some controlled driving play led to their prop Elliot McLaren crossing for a try. Sanft converted and our lead was once more only a single point. At this stage, our players again lifted their game, and Shiely and Ross Samson both kicked well to force Biggar to counter from deep. Borth converted a further penalty and we intelligently kept the visitors close to their own line for the remaining six minutes.

This was an excellent, well deserved and timely win. We now enter the Christmas break with renewed confidence, looking forward to the challenges which face us in the New Year. We are fully aware that there is a huge amount of hard work ahead, however, with five of our remaining eight games to be played at Inverleith, I, for one, strongly fancy our chances of survival.

Malky

Stew Mel Stats

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