Stew Mel vs Peebles RFC, 16/10/04

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Squad

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

A good few changes this week after the disappointment of the performance last week at Jed-Forest. Up front, the pack essentially returns to the one that played so well against Dundee High School, with recalls for Ben Leathes and Ross Rennie. Graham Lind retains his place from last week, but Stuart Clark and Nick Penny drop out. Big Clarkie is retained in the squad on the bench.

In the back division, Gavin Sharp returns in place of Richard Borthwick, who drops to the bench, whilst in at centre for his first team debut comes David Warwick, replacing the injured Struan Samson. David was captain of the School 1st XV last season and also played for Scotland U18s. He becomes the third member of last year's School team to graduate to the FP first team this season.

Riggers' Review

After the Jed defeat, the team displayed good resilience to overcome a stuffy and determined Peebles team. The performances over the last couple of weeks haven’t, however, been at the levels that the team need them to be. We showed for stages in the second half on Saturday that we are still a pretty decent team, but we need to regain the hard work ethic of the first few weeks of the season in order to return fully to the top of our game.

The first half performance yesterday was solid, if unspectacular. We were pretty secure on our own set piece and challenged well on Peebles' ball. This improved greatly after the break, and we won plenty of ball against the throw or at the set piece. The problem that we had was holding onto the ball long enough to generate some phases and control the game. Five times on the trot in the second half, we never kept the ball longer than one phase of play. That is something we’ll need to work on for next Saturday’s trip over to Bridgehaugh.

But it is a win, and a return to winning ways. A top of the table clash awaits next Saturday, so a big week looms with much preparation to be done. The support the team have had so far this season has been fantastic and, hopefully, a good few of you will make the trip with us this week.

It has been a long while since we have played Stirling County in a competitive match, and, from memory, the encounters up there have been close. We have managed to edge a few in the past (a 6-3 victory in the early 90s springs to mind), so here’s hoping the next generation of Stew/Mel players can maintain that tradition on Saturday.

Riggers

Stew Mel Stats

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