Dunfermline vs Stew Mel, 17/3/07

• Click here to jump to Riggers' Review
• Click here to jump to Stew Mel Stats

Squad

The Stewart's Melville FP RFC team to play Dunfermline in the sixth round of the Cup at McKane Park on Saturday, kick off 1.30 pm, is:

The bus for Dunfermline will leave Inverleith at 11.30 am on Saturday if any supporters would like a lift; players are asked to get to Inverleith for 11.15 am sharp.

If you're driving, directions to McKane Park are here.

Please note the early kickoff - this will allow us to cheer the boys on to victory, then watch the France vs Scotland match in the Dunfermline clubhouse afterwards.

With our webmaster shamefully absent on international duties on Saturday, any digital camera shots from McKane Park would be gratefully received - if you can take your camera along, please email your photos to Bill at the usual address.

Nosebag

Riggers' Review

With both teams missing a number of regulars due to Scotland age group call ups, it was two teams that bore little resemblance to the normal starting XVs who took the field for this Round 6 tie in the Scottish Cup. Dunfermline, on the back of a fantastic performance down at Melrose in the previous round (where their‘basketball’ style of rugby was not appreciated by the locals), can look back on this game and think that they should have won it - and they would probably be right. It is, however, our name that goes into the next round of the Cup, and who knows what can happen from here.

A storming start by the Stew/Mel pack saw us on top in the early exchanges, and, despite playing into the wind, we were turning ball over and counter attacking at every opportunity. From one of these breaks, Richard Borthwick was sent clear and scored his ninth try of the season; this put him only one try behind Alex Cox in the battle to become our leading try scorer for the season. Borth secured the extras from out wide, and, from the restart, the pack continued to play well. Getting a foothold in Dunfermline territory enabled the pack to build up a maul in the 22, and, with good patience and driving, Shaun McMurchy was eventually pushed over the line. Borth couldn’t add the extras from out wide in the swirling wind, but it looked mighty close.

As has been the case this season, instead of pushing on and putting more pressure on our opponents, we lost a bit of ball and started having some issues at the set piece. When Graeme Lowe and Scott Swankie scored tries within four minutes of each other, both converted by Chris Richards, it was game on at McKane Park. Thankfully, some composure returned to the Stew/Mel performance with promptings from Craig Joiner, and, again, the forwards managed to build a platform which saw Stuart Clark driven over to give us a 17-14 half time lead.

Where the first half had been an open running contest, the second half became more of a war of attrition. Dunfermline quickly equalized the score with a drop goal from stand off Alasdair O’Connor, before Borth had a chance to get us back into the lead with a penalty in front of the posts - which, incredibly, the touch judge failed to give. To make matters worse, the same touch judge then saw an incident which apparently merited a yellow card for Aidy Duncan. Whilst down to 14 men, Dunfermline played good rugby, pressurizing us in the scrum, and, through a good break and patient use of possession, they created an opportunity for Ross Gribbons to score an unconverted try that took Dunfermline into a 5 point lead.

The next 15 minutes of rugby saw Dunfermline comfortably handling all that we threw at them, but we were then awarded a penalty in a similar position to the one that was missed earlier; this time, it went straight through the middle of the posts, and we were only two points behind. For once we were using the conditions to our advantage, with Stuart Ker and Murray Allan both putting in lengthy clearing kicks to ease Dunfermline pressure. Finally, having built up a series of phases in the Dunfermline 22, the ball came back to Stuart Ker, who coolly slotted a drop goal to put us into the lead with just over 5 minutes on the clock.

As the result shows, we held on to the narrow lead, but not before Chris Richards had missed two long range and highly ambitious penalty attempts; they were worth a shot, though, and certainly kept the crowd enthralled in the contest. Finally the whistle to end the game arrived, and we had made it to the Scottish Cup Quarter Finals, which is not something we have done very often in the history of the competition. The next round is scheduled for April 7th, so the season is prolonged by another few weeks.

Next Saturday sees us take the trip through to CQP to play our final league game of the season. Let's hope we can build on our hard fought Cup win and gather some momentum for the Quarter Final.

Riggers

Thanks to Gary Gritter for providing photos from this game

Stew Mel Stats

Return to 1st XV Fixtures page