Hillhead Jordanhill vs Stew Mel, 20/10/07

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Squad

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

This will be Borth's 100th game for the 1st XV, and Jimmy just needs one conversion from this game to notch his 100th point for the club.

Anyone wishing a lift through to Hughenden should assemble at Inverleith by 11.45 am on Saturday, for a noon departure.

Tubbs

Bill's Bull

This was by no means a classic Stew Mel performance, but, after the depths we plumbed in the corresponding fixture last season, everyone seemed pretty pleased to leave Hughenden with four more league points. That said, both players and supporters seemed pretty sombre at the final whistle, as they knew that a bonus point should (and would) have been secured if we had made more of the possession that we enjoyed during the game.

As in the previous game, we found ourselves in the lead after just two minutes, James Park running onto a neat chip ahead to score in the corner after we had won a scrum near the touchline in the home 22. We had started the game brightly, making the most of what looked like a decent pitch, and the score was well deserved. Jimmy (who didn't have one of his best days with the boot) missed the conversion from wide right.

Hillhead Jordanhill fought back well, but our defense was up to answering the questions asked by their limited 10 man game. Our hosts also tended to lose possession by giving away penalties at the breakdown any time they managed to get into our 22, but finally got the scoreboard ticking over with a penalty from stand off Boyd after 15 minutes. Jimmy then landed a penalty on 33 minutes to make the score 3-8 in our favour, with Boyd notching another penalty to leave things finely balanced at 6-8 at the interval. Could another second half Hughenden collapse be on the cards?

Hillhead Jordanhill certainly started the second half in lively fashion, with their half backs retaining and using the ball well. Stand off Boyd kept us pinned in our half with some telling tactical kicking, then edged his team into the lead with a long range drop goal. We responded by upping our own game, although an inexplicable reluctance to use our outside backs allowed the hefty Hillhead Jordanhill pack to soak up most of our attacks. Our support running also let us down at various points, with promising breakouts by our lively back row frequently coming to nothing due to the lack of team mates up in support.

We finally made the breakthrough on 61 minutes, when some good disruption at an opposition lineout saw us breaking en masse into their 22. It was Borth who finally broke the defensive line to claim the touchdown to the right of the posts, Jimmy landing the fairly simple conversion to give us a 9-15 lead with half an hour to play.

The next score was always going to be crucial, and, thanks to a bit of good fortune, it came our way. Another Stew Mel attack around the 75 minute mark seemed to have fizzled out, but the ball then rolled loose in the home 22 after the home defenders made a hash of fielding a grubber kick. Parky, in close attendance, deftly hacked the ball over the line and outmuscled the desperately back pedaling defenders to score the try. Jimmy missed the conversion, but we were still 20-9 up with less than ten minutes to play.

We were now one score away from securing that all important bonus point, but, frustratingly, it failed to materialise, although Malky MacColl - in his first game since 28th February 2004 - looked to have grounded the ball late on after more good work from our hard working forwards. To their credit, our hosts didn't let the scoreline (and their abject start to the season) get to them, and edged closer to a bonus point of their own with a converted try five minutes from full time. We continued to besiege the home line, but the fourth try just wouldn't come before the ref blew for no side.

Winning ugly isn't something we have done much of in recent seasons (if ever), but this game was a pretty good example of it. We didn't make a lot of mistakes, but (possibly viewing this as a potential banana skin of a game) seemed reluctant to try anything too ambitious when we had the ball. Macca certainly seemed frustrated by our apparent inability to put width on the game, while the 10 man game that we got sucked into led to some potentially serious injuries to Kev, Ally and (most worryingly) Liam.

Overall, though, the players deserve plaudits for grinding out an important win on a day that they weren't firing on all cylinders. Hillhead Jordanhill had a pretty sizeable pack out, but our defence - though intermittently shaky - was up to most of what they threw at us over the course of the game.

Bill

Stew Mel Stats

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