Stew Mel vs Hawick, 11/2/06

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Squad

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

I'm delighted to say that we are able to name an unchanged starting XV this week after the superb performance at the Greenyards last Saturday.

With Andrew Statham and Alex Cox both set to secure some gametime with the 2nd XV against Biggar, they are replaced on the bench by Andy Davidson and Euan Clark respectively.

As Riggers says in his programme notes for the game, it's 25 years since we beat Hawick in a league game. It's probably almost as long (if not longer) since we won five top flight games on the trot, though, while we are well aware that another win this weekend could see us climb out of the relegation zone.

All's to play for, in other words, and I am confident that our loyal fans will turn out in their droves to cheer the boys on in this mouthwatering clash.

See you at Invers!

Malky

Nosebag's Notes

Saturday saw the 1st XV post their sixth league win on the bounce and the first against a Hawick side for 25 years. Once again, it was a wholehearted team performance which saw us through, and the 'never say die' attitude would have made Ali Burr very proud.

Compared to our previous game against the men from Mansfield Park way back in September, we as a team have not only improved vastly, but have also matured beyond all recognition.
Right from the kickoff, we knew that we were going to be in for a hard day at the office, with no quarter being asked for or given by either side. With the wind at our backs, we managed to create some opportunities, however, but sloppy handling led to the breakdown of some very promising moves.

We did not have very long to wait, though, as Jackie cut through the centre and offloaded to Shiely, who then put Borth away in the
corner. Borth managed to get right round behind the posts, making it easy for him to slot the kick and make the score 7-0. The try was our 50th of the season, and also brought up Borth's 300th point for the 1st XV.

The very strong wind was playing an enormous part in the game, the fact that Hawick were unable to make touch forcing them to run everything. The home defence managed to cope well with the visitors' running game, and some excellent rugby soon had the home fans cheering again as young Ross Samson went over. The ref blew for a forward pass on that occasion, but, soon afterwards, some great rucking by the pack saw Ross in under the posts once again. This time it counted, Borth added two more points and we were 14-0 up at half time.

With the howling gale in our faces for the second half, we knew that we would have to concentrate and keep the errors down to a minimum. This was re-emphasised when Hawick's inside centre quickly knocked over two penalties to make it 14-6 after only ten minutes of the second period.

We played some of our best rugby during the second half, with both the forwards and the backs acquitting themselves very well. Having been camped in the Hawick 22 for a long period and having squandered a couple of scoring chances, Stu Clark crashed over the line close to the posts after 78 minutes to seal the victory, but leave us with only a few minutes to collect the very much required bonus point. Borth landed the conversion and it was 21-6.

Straight from the kickoff, Hawick were on our line and breached the defence on the stroke of full time. The conversion was added and the final score was 21-13. Again the bonus point slipped away, but we are delighted to have secured four points for the win.

A huge effort had been made last week to ensure that the game would go ahead on Saturday. With reports of very cold weather for the weekend on Wednesday, a call was made to Murrayfield to borrow the covers, which were laid on Thursday by Willie and his team and Ruairi, Jed and Hotili. With the school playing Dollar at 10.30 am on Saturday morning, this meant that the covers had to come off very early. On Saturday a squad of ten plus Willie and his team assembled at Invers at 7 am (still very dark) to do the necessary. Many thanks to all involved (Black Al, Joan Simms, Riggers, Nick, Toad, Tubbs, Nosebag, Swannie,
Stroops and Bill McNie) and thanks to Black Al for the bacon rolls. Don already has his receipts for £50 ...

There is no game this week as we are out of the Cup. We now have two weeks to train very hard and prepare for the visit of Aberdeen Grammar. We outnumbered them on the touchlines in Aberdeen before Christmas, and we will require everyone to be in attendance to cheer on the team come Saturday 25th February.
Keep believing, and see you in two weeks' time!

Nosebag

Stew Mel Stats

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