Stew Mel vs Melrose, 15/10/05

Inverleith Angle

Welcome to Inverleith for today's Premier 1 encounter with Melrose. May I take this opportunity to welcome Ian Cooper, the Melrose President, his committee and club supporters for what will hopefully be an exciting contest with plenty of skillful rugby on show. Both 1st and 2nd XVs meet today in league action, and, after our 3rd XV's scintillating 5-3 victory over Melrose last Saturday, we hope to be victors like them, but with, by all accounts, better rugby being played!

It's been a tough couple of weeks on the road since we last experienced the joys of playing at Inverleith. That game, of course, saw a comfortable 36-22 victory over Boroughmuir, even if we did try to make life hard for ourselves. Our trip up to Stirling County started in positive fashion, however, we couldn't quite get the breakthrough our early play deserved and, before we knew it, we had conceded three soft scores to find ourselves well behind. The disappointment of the second half performance left those who witnessed it shell-shocked, as we seemed completely to lose the ability to do the basics and compete. A 41-10 defeat was the end result up in Stirling.

As seems to be the case these days, the trips just get tougher and tougher, and last weekend we ventured down to Ayr to play a team who are in rampant form at home, but seem to struggle away. Sound familiar? Once again, we competed well for most of the game, and, while it may seem a strange thing to write after losing 48-18, our defence held up pretty well. The problem was that you just can't defend for the amount of time that we attempted to and survive. We had a good review of the video this week, and, in these days of technology, you can pick out key moments and decisions and show the team the results of our actions. Many 'What if?' questions have been asked this week, and let's hope the squad find the right answers today against Melrose.

A number of highlights occurred in Ayr. Sam Hendry scored his 300th point for the 1st XV, Euan Clark played his 50th game and Peter Jorgensen returned in Stewart's Melville colours for the first time in 13 years. Today sees Paul Wharakura play his 50th game for the club and he has been a fantastic captain, both on and off the pitch, in his time here. Paul leads from the front and gives everything he has for the jersey, and nowhere was this more apparent than in his performance last week in Ayr. More of the same today, please, Captain!

After their early setback against Heriot's, the 2nd XV have gone unbeaten in their games since, with a convincing victory over Hawick being followed by a gutsy and spirited win up at Bridgehaugh. This run came to a halt last Saturday due to the proposed strike by Border Referees, which apparently left it too late for Jed-Forest to raise a team. As mentioned, they are on Pitch 2 against Melrose this afternoon.

The 3rd XV are flying high at the top of their league after an unbeaten start to their campaign. Victories over Biggar, Boroughmuir and Melrose see them sit joint top of their league with Watsonians, who provide today's opposition up at Myreside. The 4th XV have already played more times this season than they have for a good many, and let's hope that continues. Last time out, however, they came out on the wrong end against Edinburgh Accies.

A number of our players have been selected for some representative squads so far this season. Ross Rennie is included in the Scotland U21 core training squad for the season. David McCall, Andrew Easson, Colin Goudie and Richie Vernon are included in the U19 squad. Ross Samson is included in the U18 squad and is joined from the school by Lewis Calder, Murray Allan and Adrian Duncan. Lewis Niven, a former Stew Mel Lion who is now at Trinity Academy, has also been included. Well done to all those selected so far - let's hope they go on and clinch selection in their various teams.

Riggers

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