Cartha Queens Park vs Stew Mel, 8/9/07

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Squad

The Stewart's Melville FP RFC team to play Cartha Queens Park at Dumbreck on Saturday, kick off 3 pm, is:

As there is apparently some other sporting event taking place on the south side of Glasgow on Saturday, the bus for Dumbreck will leave Inverleith at 12 noon sharp. Players are asked to assemble at Inverleith by 11.45 am at the latest.

If you're driving, directions to Dumbreck are here.

Tubbs

Ben's Briefing

'A game of two halves' is an oft (and over) used phrase, usually adopted by overpaid and annoying prats - take a bow, Alan Hansen - in the realm of football. As I am, however, searching for terms with which to describe our lopsided performance on Saturday, this seemed the most apt and least punishing of descriptions.

After leaking an unfortunate early try from a fluke bounce, we then had a 10 minute spell of pressure in the opposition half but failed to come away with any points. There were some promising signs that lessons had been learnt from the Jed game; we produced 3 or 4 phases, the lineout functioned well and it seemed that points would come with patience and composure in the opposition 22. Unfortunately, this period of pressure went unrewarded, and, after a poor scrummage on our own 5 metre line, Cartha earned a 14 point lead, despite having only visited our 22 on three occasions.

To Stew Mel's credit, the players did not lose heart, and, with Bob Primrose orchestrating things well from scrum half, we went on to dominate possession, which, after a series of lineouts close to the Cartha line, saw Bob go over for a well deserved try which Murray Allan converted. It was, therefore, disappointing to see Cartha extend their lead shortly after this with another relatively soft try with about 5 minutes to go to half time. Andrew Fraser did something to rescue things, though, charging down an attempted clearance in Cartha's 22 before diving on the loose ball. This all came after panic ensued in the Cartha ranks when their number 4 attempted a box kick on his own line - locks should know their limits.

14-19 at half time, after fighting back into the game, and I would like to think that all members of the team believed that they could go on and win the game. At no point did I think we would be on the receiving end of 34 unanswered points in the second half. "What went wrong?!", I hear the Stew Mel faithful cry. Well, this writer is not going to dwell on the second half, as it is one the players will simply need to erase from their memories. The game was theirs for the grabbing, but it was Cartha who did exactly that.

Stew Mel need to harden up mentally and recognise that games like this need winning. To be present on the park and doing what the coach is telling you is only 50% of what is required. The other 50% comes from the individual wills joining together into a collective will to work harder, think quicker and achieve what they are capable of.

And this team is capable of much better - because I have seen it.

Ben

Stew Mel Stats

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