Boroughmuir 3rd XV vs Stew Mel 3rd XV, 6/3/10

• Click here to jump to Match Report
• Click here to jump to Stew Mel Stats

Squad

The Stewart's Melville squad for Saturday's league game against Boroughmuir at Meggetland, kick off 3 pm, is:

Outstanding commitment this week. I thank everyone listed
above for their willingness to leave Daniel’s Den and head south
towards the green and pleasant land to take on the might of the all
conquering Boroughmuir 3rds.

But the journey only starts here, and having your name on the squad sheet is only the first test - the final examination will only be judged at the full time whistle

Switching to broken record mode: “This is a must win game! Our destiny is not in our hands, and we need other results to go our way … but, with a good couple of bonus point wins, then our destiny once again becomes ours to do with as we want.”

It's a Foie Gras week, a real luxury of strength and depth. Anyone who has been following us this season will know that we have invariably struggled for numbers.

I WILL APOLOGISE NOW - SOME MAY NOT GET AS LONG A RUN AS THEY MAY LIKE - BUT WILL ENDEAVOUR TO GET EVERYONE A GAME AT SOME POINT – however, please bear with me, as this will be a very tough game, and substitutions will this week be based upon the stage of the game!

Please be at Meggetland by 2.30 pm.

Danger

Match Report

You can find an alternative report on this 'Lions vs Bears' match here.

Unfortunately, due to injuries and suspensions in the 1st XV, we were struggling to get a team together. Once again Malcolm the Manager and scrum half did a terrific job, securing the services of John Donnelly his halfback partner as they were leaving Lulu at closing time on Friday night.

As we arrived at Meggetland, the opposition were running through some grids and other pre-match rituals.

Lesson 1 - As I have told many people before, “that is wasted energy; your body only has a limited supply, why waste it?”

Checking our squad before kick off, we realised that our starting winger and number 8 had both gone AWOL. We also had no second rows or lineout jumpers - just a normal Saturday afternoon, really.

On to the game – they kicked off – we scored – as is customary in these situations, they kicked off again – being polite, we felt it necessary to score again – apparently it is in the rules that the team that concedes must restart the game with a kick off – once again we obliged with another try. It was as if the Bears had gone for a walk in the woods and we had nipped in to steal their porridge.

I don’t think their players liked this style of free flowing rugby, but it was fun to watch, and, just like in 'Rocky IV' when the Russian crowd started chanting for Rocky rather than Drago, you could hear the Bears supporters beginning to cheer for the visiting team.

This just made their players angry, and one of them rather stupidly lashed out in full sight of the referee, who had no choice but to yellow card him. Silly Bear.

Knowing they couldn’t match us in the total rugby stakes, the Bears kept it tight and tried to wear us down with driving mauls. Their efforts paid off with a couple of well worked tries. We replied with a penalty to ensure that no losing bonus could be secured, and, if not for numerous errors when in good positions, would have scored again to secure the try bonus our play deserved.

Lesson 2 – “In Total Rugby, a player who moves out of his position is replaced by another from his team, thus retaining the team's intended organisational structure. In this fluid system, no player is fixed in his nominal role; anyone can be successively a forward or back.”

Here endeth the lesson.

Richie

Stew Mel Stats

Return to 3rd XV Fixtures page