Edinburgh Accies vs Stew Mel, 22/11/03

• 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 Edinburgh Accies in the 4th round of the BT Cup at Raeburn Place on Saturday, kick off 1.30 pm, is:

The team for this mouthwatering local derby is the same as the one that edged out West in the league last week, with the only changes being on the bench. Stu Donald and Simon Rowan make their 1st XV debuts for the season, while Graham Lind has recovered from the injury he sustained during his Leading Lion performance at Neilson Park back in September.

Paul Wharakura will wear the captain's armband on Saturday.

Hope to see you down in Stockbridge for what promises to be a cracking Cup tie against our old adversaries from the other end of Inverleith Park.

Riggers' Review

Another round of the Cup was safely negotiated at Raeburn Place yesterday in a superbly controlled performance by the Stewart's Melville team. The pack, in particular, played well, whilst the backs looked dangerous just about every time they got the ball. The defence was rock solid apart from one uncharacteristic blip when we got caught ball watching. Other than that, there was just nowhere for the Accies attack to go, and that was pleasing to watch.

Any negatives? Well, our old failing of not being clinical enough reared its head once more. If we had taken all the chances we created then the final total of 39 points would easily have been surpassed by half time. We turned round only 10-0 ahead and that was disappointing. We were, however, so far in control of the game that we never really had to fear for our Cup survival. Macca urged the team at half time to get the ball through the hands and do the simple things well. If we did that, then the try scoring opportunities we had been squandering would turn into points.

He was right, and, after the early second half try by Big Clarky settled the team down, we went on to play some great stuff in the second half and scored some real quality tries. It was pleasing to watch and, judging by the look on the team's faces, enjoyable to play in. The game was helped by a very good refereeing performance by Rob Dickson, but, as he said afterwards, his job was made easy by the discipline shown by the teams. Both teams reacted to his instructions and that made for a far more entertaining game as a result.

We're back to league duty next weekend when Biggar come calling to Inverleith. Biggar are sitting one place ahead of us in the table and, if we are to have a realistic chance of making up the 12 point lead they have on us, Saturday is a must win game. Biggar, of course, will be keen to keep their promotion challenge going and will no doubt be keen to carry on where they left off against us at Hartreemill on the first Saturday of the season. I'm pretty sure we are a better team now than we were that day and there is a real possibility that only five of the team that started then will remain in the same positions come next Saturday. Quite a turnaround!

Riggers

Stew Mel Stats

Return to 1st XV Fixtures page