East Kilbride vs Stew Mel, 10/11/02

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Squad

The Stewart's Melville FPRFC team to play East Kilbride on Sunday 10th November at Torrance House, 2.30 pm kickoff, is:

The team shows four changes to the one which won at Dunfermline a couple of weeks ago. Returning from injury behind the scrum are Kenny Milligan and Stuart Bartwicki, whilst Stuart Thom returns to action after his honeymoon. The final change in the back division sees Mike Elliott move back infield to stand off. This is unfortunate on Chris Bissett, who played well against Dunfermline, but it is felt that we need Mike more involved in the game than he is when out on the wing.

Up front, the only change sees Malky MacColl preferred to Simon Attridge in the starting hooker berth.

This is the first of the return fixtures, and, in the opening game of the season, we just edged past East Kilbride 18-16 at Inverleith. The squad, however, shows 10 changes to the one selected for the first game of the season, with only two backs remaining, namely Struan Samson and Stuart Thom. Up front, we have since had the introduction of Koli Latailakepa, and Stewart Bennet has returned from injury, so we will be an entirely different proposition.

East Kilbride had a big win last time out in the league against Ross High, and, after winning in the cup last weekend, will be starting to pick up confidence. This was one of the danger games that we highlighted at the start of the season, and nothing that has happened since has altered our view of this game. If we are to keep our promotion hopes on track, then a win at Torrance House on Sunday afternoon is a necessity.

Any supporters requiring transport to East Kilbride should be at Inverleith for the departure of the team bus at 12.15 on Sunday

Riggers' Review

I promised myself, when I started doing these reviews, that I wouldn't get into a routine of slagging off or blaming referees for losses that we may incur. So far I have been pretty good with that. Yesterday, however, was a game that was ours to win, and it rankles deep down that we lost a game where we were the only team trying to play rugby and dominated the set pieces, yet lost the penalty count by a ridiculous amount. As far as the referee is concerned, I will take a leaf out of the book of an Irish Boy Band singer who sang 'Sometimes it's best when you say nothing at all'.

East Kilbride's coaches admitted afterwards that they had one intention during the game, and that was to kill it at every opportunity. They couldn't believe they got away with it. They couldn't believe that we were the team to have a player sin-binned, and they couldn't believe they won the game. It's a shame that two young, up and coming coaches should choose this approach to the game, but I guess it's a means to an end. They won the game, we didn't. We tried to play rugby, they didn't. We lose, they win. Rugby loses.

As for the Stew/Mel team, well, we remain in fourth place, thanks to the bonus point we picked up. I make that at least 28 league games on the trot that we have taken at least a point from. Not many teams will be able to better that statistic, I reckon. Ross High visit Inverleith next Sunday afternoon, and we must put them to the sword. Our next two games take on massive importance, with Musselburgh due at Inverleith the week after Ross High. If we can win next Sunday, then the Musselburgh game will go a long way to deciding the fourth promotion spot. I'm sure that, after Sunday's experience at Torrance House, the next game can't come soon enough.

Hopefully, a big crowd will be down at Inverleith over the next couple of weeks to cheer the boys on.

Riggers

Stew Mel Stats

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