Haddington vs Stew Mel, 22/2/03

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Squad

The Stewart's Melville FP RFC team to play Haddington RFC in a rearranged Premier 3 match on Saturday at Neilson Park, Haddington (kick off 3 pm) is:

The team shows a number of changes, mainly due to the unavailability of players travelling over to France for the International. Richard Borthwick is with the Under 19 squad in France, with Malky MacColl and Chris Bissett making the trip as supporters. These unavailabilities give chances to Euan Clark, Scott Bowman and Alex Edmonstone.

This is our final league game of the season and the squad are keen to get their first win over Haddington for a couple of years, having lost the three previous encounters narrowly.

Riggers' Review

Saturday saw the end of our league campaign at Neilson Park, and, as seems to be the norm in these encounters, Haddington edged us 20-18 to record their fourth narrow victory over us in two seasons. As the score suggests, the two teams were pretty evenly matched and this led to a competitive and combative encounter. The fact Haddington won the try count 3-2 might suggest that they deserved to win this game, but, in truth, if we had been as clinical as they were, then we would have opened up an early advantage.

Looking back at the first half, of the 6 times we got in behind Haddington, we only managed one score by Stuart Clark, whereas Haddington, on the other hand, scored twice out of the three times they managed to breach our defence.

With a team showing 8 changes from the side which clinched promotion last time out against Edinburgh Accies, we struggled to gel early on, and that was probably the reason why our early chances went a begging. The fact we were creating chances gave us hope, however.

After a scoreless opening quarter, we were rocked by conceding a quick brace of tries. These came in a period where we struggled to win and retain ball, and also a period in which Haddington started to believe in themselves after absorbing early pressure. We managed to regroup, however, and came back with two penalties from Scott Bowman to add to Clarky's converted try. A half-time lead of 13-10 meant a close second half was going to ensue, especially as we were playing downhill, but Haddington had the advantage of the strong wind.

Haddington started the second period well, but a breakaway try by Mark Welch gave us hope that this might finally be our day. Unfortunately, except for the last couple of minutes, this was the last time that we threatened the Haddington line, as we were continually penalised by a referee who told us beforehand that he 'might make things up as I go along'. Mr Montgomerie was as good as his word, and the game degenerated into a very scrappy affair as he totally lost control of the tackle area and the game in general.

To be fair to Mr. Montgomerie, he thought he was having a great game, and was really enjoying himself. How his mood would have been after meeting with his assessor - sorry, referee coach - I don't know. Certainly, when he quickly appeared in the committee room after the game for his debrief with his coach, it provided one of the highlights of the day. 'Thought I'd be quick so we can get on with watching the England vs Wales game' - 'Might get the second half if we're lucky' came the reply from the coach.

Despite being under pressure, our defence was holding up well. Haddington kicked a penalty to reduce the deficit to 18-13 and it looked that we might be able to hold on. A well worked try wide out on the right by Haddington levelled the scores, however, before the conversion sailed through the posts to win the game. We still had a chance to win from a penalty from wide on the left on the 10m line. Scott struck it well, but the wind held it up enough for it to fall to ground underneath the posts.

The game finished shortly afterwards, and, with it, our league campaign. A success ratio of 67% was enough for us to be promoted, but there was, again, the feeling like last season of letting a number of close games slip through our fingers. It is a habit we will have to rid ourselves of ahead of our Premier 2 campaign.

The pleasing thing throughout the campaign has been the performance of the youngsters. Yesterday saw half the team under the age of 21, and this gives us great hope for the future. Certainly, the performances of Eck, Dalgy, both Clarky's, Ally, JJ, Scott and Struan gives hope for next year. Add in Borth, Paul, Dougie and Sam, then we have the core of guys who can lead us to success in the coming seasons. There will certainly be new faces at Inverleith over the close season, but, if these guys work hard, then success can come their way again next season.

Riggers

Stew Mel Stats

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