Stew Mel vs Hamilton, 9/9/06

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Squad

The Stewart's Melville FP RFC team to play Hamilton RFC at Inverleith on Saturday, kick off 3 pm, is:

Great to see a large number of last year's school 1st XV making it into the 1st XV this week - do us proud, lads!

Also great to see the return of Dave McCall after last week's late call off due to injury.

Malky's Musings

Saturday saw us welcome Hamilton through to Inverleith for our first competitive fixture with the Lanarkshire team. Having sat through a tense opening encounter with Jed-Forest two weeks ago, the Inverleith faithful were again treated to an enthralling encounter where the home team snatched victory right on the final whistle.

There was a somewhat unfamiliar look to the Stew Mel pack as debuts were handed to two talented, yet inexperienced, props, Angus Dixon and Sean Mackenzie. Behind the scrum, Colin Goudie moved into stand off to partner his brother Stuart, with Nicky Wood unavailable. The Edinburgh winger, David McCall, also made his first appearance of the season, having recovered from injury.

The match started briskly with the home side utilising the good handling conditions to attack the heavier visitors out wide. The three quarters made a number of half breaks, with Alex Cox looking particularly sharp, though we were unable to convert early pressure into clear scoring opportunities. Indeed the only scoring during the opening quarter was an exchange of penalty goals, both awarded for break down infringements.

By now it was clear that Hamilton were content playing a more limited game plan whereby they sought to assault our fringe defences with their strong ball carrying forwards. At this stage our lighter pack was holding its own, both in the set piece and in open play, and on twenty five minutes good ball was produced and Cox broke through the visitors' defence before releasing a flying David McCall. The referee pulled this move back, adjudging that there had been a forward pass, but moments later further pressure on the stand side of the pitch saw Phil Hendry barge over for the opening try of the game. Richard Borthwick converted to make the score 10-3.

Many within the stands must have been feeling that this score would allow the team to settle and would hopefully lead to a greater degree of dominance. Hamilton continued to fight hard, however, and with a little under 10 minutes left till the break they were awarded a lineout deep into our own 22. The visitors secured this ball well and formed a strong driving maul which rumbled over the line to narrow the deficit. The conversion was missed, but, shortly after the restart, Hamilton were awarded a penalty near the Stew Mel ten meter line. They elected to kick to the corner and scored from another well worked lineout close to our line. This conversion was also missed. After another exchange of penalty goals, the whistle blew for half time with the home team trailing 13-16.

Hamilton looked the stronger team coming out after the break and our cause was not helped when Scott Brewster was sin-binned on 55 minutes for killing the ball in a ruck. Our opposition turned the screw and our weakened scrum started to look vulnerable. The visitors were dominating possession and it was little surprise when the ex Glasgow centre Craig Sangster wormed his way out of a tackle to score out wide and stretch Hamilton's lead. By this stage we had been forced into one change, with the impressive Andrew Easson leaving the field with a neck injury, and we had also introduced Simon Capaldi into the front row in an attempt to solidify the scrum. The visitors continued to enjoy the bulk of the ball and stretched their lead through a penalty goal before scoring a further try when a Sangster break was well finished by the captain, Dodds. This left the score 13-29, and, with less than ten minutes remaining on the clock, it looked as though even a bonus point was out of our reach. To make matters worse our skipper, Stuart Clark, was given a yellow card for breaking from a scrum after the referee had raised his hands, apparently indicating that the ball was free to be played.

By this stage there was nothing left but to throw caution to the wind. Deep in our own 22, we were awarded a penalty and Richie Vernon was released, breaking up over the half way line. He continued to carve his way through a tired, and perhaps complacent, Hamilton defence, and the impressive number 8 touched down under the posts. Borth converted, but, with 80 minutes on the clock, this looked like no more than a consolation. We continued to press from the resultant dropout, however, and were awarded a penalty midway into the Hamilton half which Borth calmly struck home to make the score 23-29. The referee indicated that there were still two minutes to play, and it was clear that the Stew Mel players now had the belief that they could exploit the flagging opposition and pull off a remarkable recovery. Phil Hendry burst through the visiting defence shortly after the restart and, after a number of frantic phases, Richard Borthwick scraped through a gap to score under the posts. He converted to complete a robbery of Dick Turpin proportions.

Hamilton can count themselves extremely unlucky only to have taken 2 points from Inverleith on Saturday. They are a well drilled team which will be far from propping up the bottom end of the table come the end of the season. To their great credit, they stayed in the bar and socialised long after the final whistle.

We have much to work on if we wish to return to Premier One at the first time of asking, most notably our lineout defence and clearing work. We will, however, get stronger over the forthcoming weeks, with a number of players shortly returning to training. Our young props played extremely well and we are very proud of their efforts. It was also pleasing to see Simon Capaldi, Dougie Naismith, Sam Hendry and Mickey MacDonald impressing from the bench. It is also good to see us benefit from some of the luck which eluded us for much of our last campaign; I will enjoy it whilst it lasts.

Malky

Stew Mel Stats

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