Kirkcaldy vs Stew Mel, 24/1/04

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Squad

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

An unchanged starting XV this week, after what was, considering how they played last Saturday, probably the easiest selection process of the season.

A couple of changes have been made to the bench to allow Pete McLean and Euan Clark full games for the 2nd XV. Malcolm MacColl and Fraser Rankine step up in their places.

Please note the late kickoff time for this game - should still leave you plenty of time to get your gladrags on for the Club Burns Supper at Inverleith at night!

Riggers' Review

After every corner you turn with this Stewart's Melville 1st XV, there is a car crash waiting to happen. Thankfully, we managed to avoid it on Saturday - but only just.

Having built steadily, week on week, since the start of 2004, we came down to earth with a bump on Saturday. It is always the way after a performance like the one we had against Dundee. Add to that the fact that we had put over 60 points on Kirkcaldy earlier in the season, and you could maybe sense that the intensity was not where it had been seven days earlier. Benzo had told the forwards repeatedly on Thursday night that it was the top two inches that would win the game on Saturday, and he was right.

Despite dominating territorially for most of the game and having the upper hand in the set pieces, we found ourselves 17-7 down with 10 minutes to go. Kirkcaldy had cut through us a few times and unusually poor defence had accounted for both Kirkcaldy's tries. There was a worrying tendency to fall off the tackle this week, and, with a youthful and quick set of backs, Kirkcaldy were more than capable of punishing us. Certainly, their left winger had a couple of chances late on which, thankfully, came to nothing, but the threat was there all the same.

We had plenty of possession, but were being disrupted at the breakdown, through both fair means and foul. We, however, never sorted it like we had in previous weeks. Instead of going past the ball and giving Mike clean ball, we arrived then stopped at the ball, which meant Mike had to go in digging for the ball. Having slow ball meant that Kirkcaldy could regroup and defend, and it also allowed them to come flying up in the backs, and get us off the route to where we wanted to play. When we did what we are good at well, things looked better, but mistakes meant we were unable to take advantage of our earlier good work.

Our lucky break finally came with about ten minutes to go. Kirkcaldy were reduced to 14 men for killing a driving lineout near their line. We immediately took advantage to score wide on the left through Tyronne and pull the game back to 17-12. From the kick off, we secured possession, hit a couple of rucks and spun the ball to the right. When Nick Penny got the ball, there wasn't much on, so he hit and stayed big and we built up a maul. Dalgy then took off down the blindside with only one man to beat. He passed to Borth on his inside and, despite a moment's hesitation, he was gone all the way to the line. Bizarrely, the referee awarded the try on his hands and knees on the 22. Hadn't seen that before, but they count all the same.

17-17 with time nearly up and Kirkcaldy back up to a full complement. It required a last throw of the dice, and, despite two knock ons - the second of which by Ek was about a yard forward - play went on. Lindy ended up with the ball going down the left wing. Four dummies to Jed were bought and Lindy continued into the Kirkcaldy 22. Lindy finally finished his mesmeric run by passing to Dalgy, who passed on to Andy Kelly, before the ball was popped up again to Lindy. He duly crossed the whitewash for the first time this season to give us our fourth 5 point win of 2004. It was close, but we got there in the end.

On Saturday we will host league leaders Gala, who are edging ever closer to promotion and Premier 1. It will be a huge test for the boys, but they have shown already that they can raise their game to the required level. We had a good battle with them down at Netherdale earlier in the season and another tough encounter looks on the cards. The biggest threat appears to be the weather if the forecasters are right. We will, however, train hard and be ready come 2.30 pm next Saturday.

Riggers

Stew Mel Stats

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