Grangemouth vs Stew Mel, 20/12/03

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Squad

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

Quite a few changes this week in order to try and get the blend back and get us back to winning ways. None of the backs remain in the same position as last week and, in fact, Tyronne Anderson, Fraser Deeming and Nick Wood are the only ones to remain at all.

In come Matt Dey, Struan Samson, Euan Clark and Jed Gordon. It is Jed's first start in the 1st XV and, coming on the back of his selection for the Scotland U19 team against Scottish Universities on Wednesday, caps a good week for him. Dropping out are Michael Elliott, Stuart Donald, Stuart Thom and Graham Shiel. Shiely retains his place in the squad with a bench slot this week.

Not such drastic changes up front. The only change is Andy Kelly dropping out to sit on the bench for Edinburgh, which allows Alex Edmonstone to return to the starting lineup. Alex will hopefully continue where he left off against Kelso, when he hit his jumper 18 times out of 18 at the lineout.

Obviously this game is going head to head with the Edinburgh Gunners' Celtic Cup Final with Ulster. We did offer alternative times and dates to Grangemouth, but both clubs couldn't agree, so we are faced with having to fulfill our fixture. We'll hopefully catch the second half on TV after our game and watch Edinburgh become the first Scottish Pro team to lift silverware. With Brendan, Burnsy and Andy Kelly all representing the club at Murrayfield, we wish the Gunners all the best.

Any spectators wishing a lift to Grangemouth can travel on the team's Party Bus, departing Inverleith at noon on Saturday.

Riggers' Review

I think that this was one of the coldest rugby experiences I've ever had. In front of what must have been a record low crowd for a Premier 2 game, both teams managed to serve up a feast of below average rugby which, at times, was painful to watch. Thankfully it was so cold and miserable that it was hard to concentrate on what was actually going on on the pitch.

Of course, the result is another disappointment. After the highs of an unbeaten November, we've gone throughout December without a victory. Even more disappointing is that, on each occasion, we have been our own worst enemies. You hope that you take lessons out of defeat, and, certainly, after the loss to Kelso, you would have hoped that we would have learned a lesson about taking chances when they come along. Three weeks later, we still have that lesson to learn, and it has cost us potentially 13 points which would have had us very close to Biggar in third place in the league. Instead, we've dropped to seventh.

But you can look at 'ifs' and 'buts' and all the calculations you want. Quite simply, at this stage we aren't quite good enough. We can be, though. We have shown on many occasions this season how good we can be. We must just learn to be more consistent. It is a very steep learning curve that we are on, but that is a good thing. The effort from the squad has been good so far, but it is going to have to improve if we are to fulfill the undoubted potential that the current squad has.

We have a week off before our next game against Murrayfield Wanderers, and we kind of owe them one after they comprehensively outplayed us at Murrayfield in September. Let's hope that 2004 starts better than 2003 has ended.

Riggers

Stew Mel Stats

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