Stirling County vs Stew Mel, 28/10/06

• Click here to jump to Malky's Musings
• Click here to jump to Stew Mel Stats

Squad

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

A settled look to the team, once again, though we are delighted to welcome Phil Hendry back from injury.

This promises to be our toughest match of the season so far, but there could be no better place to get our promotion push back on track than Bridgehaugh on Saturday. Hope to see you there.

Anyone fancying a lift to Stirling on Saturday should assemble at Inverleith at noon for a 12.15 departure.

Malky's Musings

Bridgehaugh has not been a happy hunting ground for Stew Mel over recent seasons, and our supporters would have travelled through to Stirlingshire somewhat apprehensive of the oncoming fixture. Ultimately, the home team did take the spoils on the day, however our team produced a performance which was a great improvement upon the previous two weeks.

We started promisingly, with the pack retaining possession well and repeatedly generating good quick ball from the breakdown. The first real scoring chance came after five minutes, when some excellent driving from Phil Hendry and Stephen Dalgleish was repelled just short of the Stirling line. The home team, playing with a stiff breeze at their backs, sought to play a territorial game, and it was clear that the booming boot of stand off Brian Archibald would be a key weapon in their armoury.

The opening score came with around 10 minutes on the clock. Stirling launched a high ball into our half which was well fielded by the Stew Mel winger, Pete McLean. We turned over the ball at the resultant ruck, however, and, with Pete trapped at the break down, the home scrum half intelligently chipped the ball over our defence to allow winger Ross Aitken to score. Archibald converted to make the score 7-0. We continued to enjoy our fair share of possession and were unlucky not to score in the next 10 minutes following good line breaks from Phil Hendry and Dave McCall, and also a searing run from the base of the scrum by Ritchie Vernon. The Stirling defence stood firm, however, and we were let down by a lack of composure in the final third of the pitch.

Stirling extended their lead with a long range penalty goal on 20 minutes. Shortly after this, the home side were reduced to 14 men when second row Craig Deacons was sin binned for a late tackle. As often seems to be the case, however, this galvanized the numerically disadvantaged side. Indeed, it was at this point that we started to lose concentration in the scrum and were placed under some significant pressure from a number of driven line outs. With only minutes remaining till half time, we leaked a try with some uncharacteristically sloppy defence. Ironically, this was scored by the returning Deacons. Half time: Stirling 17, Stew Mel 0.

We started the second half the stronger side, though we naively failed to use the elements to the same degree as Stirling. Borth opened our account with a penalty goal on 45 minutes following a breakdown infringement. We narrowed the gap by a further five points on 51 minutes when Pete McLean barged over on the far side of the pitch. Eleven minutes later, a second Borthwick penalty took the score to Stirling 17, Stew Mel 11, and it looked as though we had a serious game on our hands. We continued to struggle in the scrum, however, and we were also failing to secure as much good ball from the lineout as we have come to expect. The final score of the match went Stirling's way when we were turned over at a scrum near our own line. Stirling 22, Stew Mel 11.

The last three weeks have clearly been disappointing in terms of results, and, at times, our inexperience has proven very costly. The performance on Saturday was, however, a major step in the right direction. We will work hard on ironing out the problems with our set piece this week, and I am confident that the team will produce a strong display against Cartha Queen's Park at home next Saturday.

Malky

Stew Mel Stats

Return to 1st XV Fixtures page