Stew Mel vs Musselburgh, 23/11/02

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

Squad

The Stewart's Melville FPRFC team for Saturday's game with Musselburgh, 2 pm kick off at Inverleith, is:

We make a few changes again this week, as we still search for the elusive blend that will turn our dominant performances on the pitch into better reading on the scoreboard.

Fraser Pollock returns from injury and takes over at full back from Scott Bowman, while Chris Bissett continues at outside centre after a performance that promised much last Sunday. His centre partner this week is Steven Reed, which means no place for Struan Samson. Mark Welch returns to the squad to provide cover on the bench.

Up front, we have decided to make a change in the back row. Richard Simms played for Ireland U19 in the FIRA tournament earlier this year, and has put early season injury troubles behind him. Richard will bring further pace to the back-row, and looks to be a 'genuine' open side forward. It was just felt that the back row were all very similar and a different blend is being sought.

Riggers' Review

Professional. That's the easiest way to sum up the performance at Inverleith on Saturday afternoon. It may not have been the prettiest game to watch, but the one thing that was important, going into the game, was to win. This was achieved with a bit to spare against a stuffy Musselburgh side who defended resolutely, albeit, going by the penalty count against them, mostly illegally. We were fortunate that Fraser had his kicking boots on, and he kept the scoreboard ticking over nicely in the first half with a 100% per cent record.

We were somewhat fortunate that, by the time Steven Reed discovered that he still has pace to take someone on the outside and scored in the corner, the Musselburgh stand off had missed three easily kickable penalties. What difference a scoreline of 15-9 instead of 22-0 with 20 minutes to go would have made is something we can but muse over, but it never happened, and I, for one, won't be losing too much sleep over it!

The win puts us 10 points ahead of the fifth place team, which is a fantastic gap to have opened up in the hunt for promotion. We are, however, more interested in the three teams above us, and know that three winning performances in the run up to Christmas, starting next week at West, could see us close the gap. We still harbour desires to win the league, and, with our old friends (!) at East Kilbride beating Dundee, then the gap between first and fourth has closed again. If we can take care of business in the next few weeks, then the promotion issue should take care of itself.

After a total team performance it is difficult to single players out for praise, but I think two guys deserve a special mention after their performances. Ricky Simms, on his first team debut, showed the undoubted talent he has, and that talent was never more apparent than when he turned over ball midway through the first half. It was a genuine openside flanker's steal and that moment, in itself, justified his selection.

The other player whose performance was something special was scrum half Euan Clark. All I can say about Clarky is that, if there are three better scrum halves at Under 19 level in Scotland, then the future of Scottish rugby is in great hands. Clarky has a real bit of fight about him, a great pass and defence that was outstanding. I'm sure he is just going to get better and better as he gets older, and that can only be good for the future of Stewart's Melville rugby.

Riggers

Stew Mel Stats

Return to 1st XV Fixtures page