Stew Mel vs Kirkcaldy RFC, 22/3/03

• Click here to jump to Riggers' Review
• Click here to jump to Stew Mel Stats

Squad

The Stewart's Melville FP RFC team to play Kirkcaldy RFC in a rearranged Premier 2 & 3 Combined Tournament match on Saturday at Inverleith (kick off 1 pm) is:

This, our last fifteen a side fixture of the season, offers us a chance to move towards a respectable position in the Combined Tournament table, following our excellent victory at Selkirk last weekend, as well as providing us with further indication of the standard of opposition we'll be up against in Division 2.

It also offers spectators a chance to see some players who've seldom featured in the 1st XV this season - Simon Rowan's last game was our first league fixture, against East Kilbride - so your support would be appreciated.

Riggers' Review

For the second season running, Kirkcaldy brought our 1st XV's 15-a-side games to an end with a victory over us at Inverleith. Similarly to last season, the main difference between the two sides was that of power and strength, and it was good that the focus of the team straight after the final whistle was to talk about redressing that advantage they have over us. Certainly, if the 19 guys involved on Saturday all work hard, and the 25 or so players that were unavailable commit to doing the same, then, come the start of next season, we should be in good shape to tackle the challenges that lie ahead in Premier 2. Add into that any possible new recruits that we may gather along the way, then I'm quite hopeful that we'll acquit ourselves well next season.

Whilst our last five games have been disappointing, except the win at Selkirk of course, it has shown the coaches players they may not have seen in other circumstances, and it is always better to see how someone fronts up when put under pressure in game situations. Generally speaking, the number of players who we now know can do a job for us has increased, and that can only be good for our development. A number of players have also not shone as much as we would have expected, and this will be communicated to them at their end of season review meetings with the coaches.

The game itself saw us on the back foot for long periods, but, as at Selkirk, the defence was mostly sound. We withstood early pressure, but Kirkcaldy eventually made their presence felt with a try down the blindside. We then conceded a couple of soft scores to take the score to 22-3 before Ek once again produced some of his magic to shrug off a couple of tackles and score from just inside the 22. Not bad for a prop! Half-time arrived with the score 22-8, and a positive team talk at half-time about what we should be trying to do.

A spirited opening period saw us exert lots of pressure on Kirkcaldy, and Jason Conlin barged his way over to score. With the conversion, the score closed to 22-15, and we were right back in the game and the prospect of an upset was on the cards. We couldn't, however, breach the Kirkcaldy defence again, and they played some clinical rugby to take the game out of our reach. They also had the misfortune to lose one of their players with a nasty looking leg injury, and we hope that the injured player recovers quickly. Some more pressure which led to nothing saw the final whistle blow, and, with it, the end of our season.

There are, of course, a number of Sevens tournaments over the next six weeks or so, and training will continue for these. Ken Sharp will be leading the assault on the Sevens circuit this year, assisted by Craig Docherty. Training to improve the players' Strength and Conditioning will also start in the next couple of weeks at Inverleith, so it will still be busy.

Let's hope, by the time of my next review, I'm talking of a fine victory in our opening league match of next season.

Riggers

Stew Mel Stats

Return to 1st XV Fixtures page