Stew Mel 3rd XV vs Edinburgh Northern 2nd XV, 8/9/07

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Squad

The Stewart's Melville team for Saturday's friendly with Edinburgh Northern 2nd XV at Inverleith, kick off 2 pm, is:

This match replaces the scheduled league game against the Nails, which has been cancelled at the request of our chums from along Ferry Road - see, we've got them running scared!

Please be at Inverleith by 1.15 pm at the latest.

Remember to bring retro white shorts if you have them, as this is our new look for the season.

Also, after Korean names previously, this year's theme will be double-barrelled names. So, if you’ve not done so already, can you give it some thought? Ideally we want these in place for the Forrester game next week.

Match Report

The Nails called off late on the Friday night - seemingly they could only raise seven players. Luckily, Edinburgh Northern 2nds also had a called off game; Preston Lodge 3rds had (along with The Nails) obviously decided, what with the nice weather and the Rugby World Cup being on, that a game of rugby was simply a bridge too far.

So, by the magic of enthusiasm, ourselves and Northern took to the pitch for an early kick-off in the hot sun at Inverleith. Due to some front-row call-offs and an odd looking pack with me at prop and Shaft at flanker, we had to go for uncontested scrums - whilst also deciding three periods of 20 minutes would be sufficient in the heat. This was further justified when Cameron Backrow hobbled off after 2 minutes with a back injury, leaving us a player short.

Luckily Jedi had already scored a scorching left wing try with his first touch to give us all some optimism. We shouldn't have worried. Showing some devastating finishing, our backs tore Northern apart, and, within the first 10 minutes, Jed, Andy Gamble and Darren Hoyland all ran in long range tries. Despite having a large, uncompromising pack and tactics that involved retaining possession through them, Northern had no answer for our pace out wide.

We lost Johnny Brock to injury late on in the second period and were forced to play on with 13, yet still we steadfastly refused to let Northern score whilst continuing to rack the points up against them. Shaft scored a great try before being moved to fly-half to replace Johnny. This left us with 6 in the pack, and it took Northern a couple of lineouts before they realised that we weren't taking numbers out on purpose - it was all we had available.

Our pack tackled and cleared out resolutely whilst making the hard yards when it mattered. Unfortunately I have to report that some kicking crept into our game, started by Danger and ended by Ric Clark with a mammoth up and under from his own 5m line that he collected somewhere upfield. Apart from that we kept our heads and kept up the scoring to see Northern off comfortably.

All that was left was to retire to the bar and to partake in a warm down that consisted of a game of tig, instigated by my 5 year old son and involving everyone, including the excellent referee - excellent at refereeing, that is, not at tig - and the referee's assessor.

The season still feels like it hasn't really started, but Forrester away next week should prove a tough test. Let's hope we can maintain our winning ways, put out a strong squad and give another solid performance.

Brodie

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