Edinburgh Accies 3rd XV vs Stew Mel 3rd XV, 6/10/07

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Squad

The Stewart's Melville team for Saturday's league game against Edinburgh Accies at Raeburn Place, kick off 1 pm, is:

Match Report

Bringing the season back on track after last week’s heavy defeat to Linlithgow was always going to be a struggle with an unprecedented 25 regular players unavailable for duty. On paper, the squad selected should, however, have had the experience and skill to make a game of our visit to Raeburn Place.

A strong team on paper is, however, only good if everyone turns up.

With the lunchtime kickoff quickly approaching and only 12 Stew Mel shirts out on the park, conceding the match proved to be inevitable. A quick discussion between the teams and it was decided that it was too nice a day not to play some rugby, so the addition of the Accies subs to our starting lineup made it 15 against 14. The way it turned out, it might have been more sensible to call it a day and retire to the pub for lunch.

Accies proved to be a well drilled and enthusiastic unit, and we quickly found ourselves trailing to some fine individual tries. All drive and pride seemed to have been taken out of us by the disappointment of our fellow squad members not turning up to what should have been a vital game. Indeed, it wasn’t until late in the first half that we had any consistent ball and threatened the home try line – only to be repelled by stout defending.

The second half continued in much the same vein, with us seemingly only able to get hold of the ball in order to take restarts, and Accies continued to show good hands, good support, and just plain desire to play some rugby as they continued to rack up the points. I would love to think having the extra man made it easier for them, but, with the way we played, I don’t think even having 15 would have helped.

Overall, a very bad day for us, and not one that any of us will be keen to see repeated. Greater commitment is needed, not only on the field, but in terms of turning up to games, as well.

Shaft

Stew Mel Stats

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