Musselburgh vs Stew Mel, 23/2/02

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Squad

The Stewart's Melville FP RFC team to play Musselburgh at Stoneyhill on Saturday (kick off 3 pm) is:

The team picked for Saturday is full strength apart from the injured Andy Kelly. Andy injured the medial ligament in his left knee in the Strathmore cup tie and it is reckoned that he will be out until the weekend of the French International. That is, of course, the weekend that we play Dundee in our final league game. It also means Andy will be available for the Shield semi-final against Kirkcaldy the following week, which, whilst not coming close to the disappointment of missing out on Under 21 Internationals, will hopefully provide him with suitable motivation to return to the team and make a big impact.

Other changes from the Strathmore game see Steven Reed finally making his comeback from injury and work commitments, while Mark Welch returns from business commitments but has do make do with a place on the bench. Mention must also go to Gavin Sharp, who came in for, and played in, the Shield game. Experience has won the day in selection this time, though Gavin's time will come.

Up front sees the reintroduction of Dougie Rycroft for Andy Kelly after injury and Mark Paton starts ahead of Ally Maclay. This was another close call, with Mark again edging the starting slot due to his experience. I'm sure Ally, who is also playing for Glasgow U18 on Sunday, will make his trademark impact on the game when called upon. Mark has done well to come back into the side and his performance in the mud at Strathmore was exceptional.

At the start of the season, this game was highlighted as one of the toughest of the season and nothing that has happened since has changed our thinking about that. Stoneyhill has traditionally been a difficult place for Stewart's Melville teams to win, but the same was said about Berwick. With the top two in the league meeting on Saturday, there is a great chance for us to put pressure on them. We know Musselburgh will be tough. They are similar to ourselves this season in that they have an experienced pack and young, talented backs. I'm sure whoever comes out on top in the forward battle will probably edge the game. Last year at Stoneyhill, Musselburgh won the forward battle all too easily, so it will be time for the pack to stand up and be counted.

The encounter earlier in the season was a close affair, with Stew/Mel winning 28-18, although, from memory, it was much closer than that, with us being tormented by the Musselburgh scrum half for most of the match. It is, however, a much changed Stew/Mel squad on show from that game, with nine changes in personnel. Here's looking forward to a win!

Riggers

Match Report

(To follow)

Riggers' Review

One down, three to go. That's the bottom line after Saturday's game. Not a great performance by the Stew/Mel team, by any stretch of the imagination, and it is hard to think the watching Biggar players and coaches will be quaking in their boots after seeing this, but a win was needed and it was achieved.

On a pitch that was very greasy on top due to the morning thaw, the team started very well. I think the first time Musselburgh had the ball for any length of time was as they jogged back with it to the halfway line after Fraser Pollock had scored wide out after about 5 minutes of the game. It was just the start we were after and, playing into the strong wind, it showed the way to play the game was at pace, with the forwards and backs combining to create opportunities wide out. Certainly, this game plan was working to an extent, but the problems began when a few handling errors were made wide out. Instead of persevering with the 'high risk' game plan, we maybe went into our shells and allowed Musselburgh the opportunity to compete. We did stretch our lead to 11-0 thanks to a couple of penalties, and things were looking good on the scoreboard, especially with the strong wind set to be in our favour in the 2nd half. Undoubtedly, we should have scored another try, at least, but Musselburgh were intent on giving away penalties rather than tries near their own line and they held us out.

At half time, much was talked about, especially the way we were presenting ball in the tackle situation. This had become a bit of a lottery thanks to the non-refereeing of the situation by the match official. It was decided that rolling the ball back in contact might help clear the ball, but it never really improved the ball we were getting.

It is a sad reflection of the game that the referee can dominate it so much. I had watched the Edinburgh vs Glasgow game on the Friday night and looked on as the referee decided he was the most important person on the pitch. I thought it would take a while to see another refereeing display like that, but I was wrong - not even 24 hours! In the weather we are currently experiencing, the ref must have a feel for the game. In a howling wind, the ball isn't always going to be thrown in straight. A certain amount of leeway needs to be given and, if this is communicated to the players, then they will react accordingly. The game was continually stopped due to throws by both sides not being straight, sometimes by as little as six inches. Another gripe I've got with the lineout is, if a team doesn't challenge on the throw, and the ball goes in squint, why should they benefit from the scrum? They weren't going to win the lineout, as they hadn't jumped, so just let play go on!

Anyway, the second half went on, we increased our lead to 14-6 and never really looked like scoring another try. Our indiscipline was costing us dear, and the players admitted afterwards that it had got to the stage that they didn't know what they could do in contact situations that would not be penalised. The only saving grace was that Musselburgh never looked like scoring, either, so the game kind of petered out as a contest. Musselburgh did score a late penalty to get a bonus point, but the cheers that went round when the final whistle blew were more out of relief at being put out of our pain than of joy at winning.

A brief post mortem was held in the changing rooms afterwards, and the main thing to come out of it was disappointment. Disappointment in the way we had played. Disappointment that we never had the courage to keep playing an expensive game after making a few errors. Disappointment that we reacted so badly to refereeing decisions and were walked back 10 metres, four or five times. Just an overwhelming sense of disappointment. But, and we might have lost sight of this during the post mortem, we WON! Mark Paton reckoned it was only the second time in twelve years he had won at Stoneyhill. Certainly I can't remember too many other victories at Stoneyhill, so let's be pleased and move on.

Still, we have our own destiny in our hands. Win the three games that we have to play, and we will be promoted. Our latest new recruit was watching on Saturday, and is going to come down over the final few weeks to give a hand in training. Yes, Brendan 'Chainsaw' Laney has become a member of the club. Speaking to him afterwards, he saw enough glimpses from the team to indicate that we are better than the performance he watched. For those reading this and wondering why he has joined Stew/Mel, the simple and truthful answer is that we asked him, and he said yes. Really it was that simple!

Another weekend off for the boys with the Ireland international, so training will be hard and physical this week. Three sessions are planned next week, so we will hopefully be firing on all cylinders when Biggar come to visit Inverleith on March 9th. Good luck to Scotland and Brendan next week, and let's hope we see a big Stew/Mel crowd at Inverleith to cheer the boys on against Biggar.

Riggers

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