Dundee HSFP RFC vs Stew Mel, 15/1/05

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Squad

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

Three changes from the team that was selected but never played against Haddington last weekend.

Struan Samson is available this week and returns in the No. 12 jersey at the expense of David Warwick. Sam Hendry has had to drop out, and is replaced at outside centre by Chris Bissett, with Jed Gordon stepping up from the bench to fill Jaffa's wing berth.

The pack are unchanged from last week.

Due to problems we may encounter with winds going over the Forth Road Bridge, we are meeting at 10.30 am for the bus to Dundee.

This is another crucial game for the boys, so it would be great to see as many supporters as possible joining us for what I'm sure will be another memorable road trip to and from the City of Discovery.

Riggers' Review

Mayfield in Dundee has not exactly been a happy hunting ground of late for Stewart’s Melville and, with our patchy away form this season, confidence was not at its highest for the first fixture of 2005. So let’s make no bones about it - achieving an 11-8 win was a fantastic result for the club, and certainly answered a few questions that had been going through the mind regarding desire, commitment and heart after the last game at Murrayfield Wanderers.

To be fair, we were assisted by the decision of the Dundee team to kick to the corner rather than take the points on three occasions and, with the game always looking like being tight, those were strange decisions to take. Certainly, the decision, with five minutes to go, to go for the lineout instead of taking the straightforward three points on offer was one that we may have cause to be thankful for, if we can perform for the rest of this season. We certainly have reason to thank Ben Leathes, who decided to emulate what Justin Harrison did against the Lions in 2001 and steal the ball 5 metres out from our line.

I think the healthy crowd appreciated the tough encounter that was served up between two well matched teams and, certainly, the gracious Dundee supporters and committee seemed to indicate that we were worth the victory, if only just. The hospitality at Dundee was, once again, first class and great to experience from a leading Scottish club. The generous donation of raffle prizes including whisky, cider and red wine for our bus trip home was very gratefully received by members of the team and some management!

We return to Inverleith next week to take on Jed-Forest in probably the biggest game the club have faced since the promotion battle with Edinburgh Accies in early 2003. The winners of the game will have nothing secured, but will take massive confidence into the remaining games. Jed-Forest were the only team to visit Inverleith on league business in 2004 and come away with the points, so we all know it will be tough. We were given a bit of a lesson by them earlier in the season down at Riverside Park, so another tough encounter looms.

It would be great to see as many supporters down as possible to try and cheer the club on. The team appreciate your support and, with the Tsunami Appeal donation of gate receipts being carried forward to this encounter, there are many others who would appreciate your support, too.

Riggers

Stew Mel Stats

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