Selkirk RFC vs Stew Mel, 15/3/03

• 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 Selkirk RFC in a Premier 2 & 3 Combined Tournament match at Philliphaugh on 15th March, 3 pm kick off, is:

The team shows four injury enforced changes and another change due to unavailability. Out injured for this week are Alex Edmonstone, Richard Borthwick, Euan Clark and Scott Bowman, whilst Mark Welch has taken to the slopes and is on the piste. Into their places come a fit again Gavin Sharp, Ally Day (who will be making his 1st XV debut), Brian McDougall and a returning Stuart Thom.

The changes result in a reshuffling of the back line, with Chris Bissett moving to stand off and last week's strong running winger, Marc Karapanovic, moving into the outside centre berth.

For your information, the following 'team' are unavailable for selection this weekend:

Not a bad XV!

Riggers' Review

Sometimes, you know, it's not the size of the dog in the fight that counts, it's the size of the fight in the dog. Saturday afternoon was very much an example of that, as a side shorn of many of its regulars turned in one of its gutsiest displays for a long time. Last week I wrote about our defence being the poorest that it had been all season. Yesterday it was back to its best, with all 20 men in the squad contributing heavily and putting their bodies on the line for the cause of the team wearing red, black and gold.

Macca had challenged the team at the end of the game with Grangemouth last Saturday to show that they were capable of finishing off a job that they had started. Against Haddington, Biggar and Grangemouth, we had got ourselves into positions in each game to come away with victories, but had finished each game on the losing side. The challenge was more than met on Saturday at Philliphaugh.

We started well at Selkirk, and, although early pressure on their line didn't tell, we were rewarded about 10 minutes in when great pressure in defence led to a loose pass by Selkirk and Stuart Bartwicki was able to run three quarters of the length of the pitch to score under the posts. Unfortunately, at this stage captain Chris Bissett sustained an injury to his hand and was forced off field. This led to Twicki moving to scrum half and Stuart Thom to stand off. For the next 10 minutes, this switch worked a treat as a further two tries were scored by Donald Scott and Daniel Smit.

Donald was the catalyst for much of the good stuff being done at this stage, and the skill that he has (which very few players at any level in Scotland have), of picking angles to run at and timing his runs to perfection, led to him breaching the gain line on numerous occasions. After one break, he managed to get on the receiving end to score himself, then another break led to Daniel Smit scoring his first try for the 1st XV. Special credit should go to Danny, as he has been one of the top performers in the club since the turn of the year, and, on the hard, firm pitches which he has played on in the last few weeks, he has been outstanding.

These tries led to a 17-0 lead, and the team took great heart from the way we were playing. For the rest of the game, however, we lived off scraps of possession, and only our determined defence kept Selkirk at bay. Certainly, a major turning point and reinforcement of the belief that we could hold out came in the five minutes before half-time, when we were defending our line. To go into half-time 17-3 ahead made the second half an easier prospect than it would have been at 17-10.

The second half saw us defend almost constantly for 40 minutes. We were kind of exposed by the lack of a front line kicker who could clear our lines, and the newcomers to the team were kind of struggling for fitness due to the amount that the defence was taking out of them. We were also, maybe, a bit guilty of going into our shell and trying to defend our lead instead of increase it, but that's for another day to worry about. We had 20 players putting their all into the cause and it was heartening to see.

The final whistle went with Selkirk being awarded a scrum 5 after being held up over our line. It was that sort of day. We had a few breaks that went our way, but, sometimes, you get what you deserve. On Saturday, we fully deserved our first win in this new tournament. It was also our second win on Border territory this season after our win over Kelso at the start of the season. I know, when I first started playing for the club, that our record of visiting Border grounds and coming away with victories was poor, to say the least. There was almost an air of resignation when we would meet for the trips to the various Border clubs we needed to play.

Thankfully, we seem to have lost this, and have a real belief that we can now go down to the Borders and win. It is something we will need next season, with trips to Selkirk, Gala and Kelso all on the cards.

Next weekend sees us play Kirkcaldy in the final 1st XV game of the season. It would be nice to finish the season with a 50% record in this competition. To do so, we'll need all the guys putting in a big effort this week at training, and another huge effort next weekend. Let's hope that we finish the season on a high note at Inverleith!

Riggers

Stew Mel Stats

Return to 1st XV Fixtures page