Lasswade 2nd XV vs Stew Mel 3rd XV, 19/1/08

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Squad

The Stewart's Melville team for Saturday's league game with Lasswade 2nd XV at Hawthornden, kick off 2 pm, is:

This is a 2 pm KO, so we will aim to leave Invers as a convoy about 12.15 pm.

Coylie

Match Report

A first visit to Lasswade’s impressive new facilities – just unfortunate that we were not impressive there.

Saturday morning saw us with 19, due to the prodigious efforts of our about-to-depart manager, who was escorting the reason for his impending departure on a short Highland break. But three call–offs prior to departing Inverleith saw numbers at a precarious level. By kick off time it was even worse, with two stuck in Edinburgh traffic.

Our opponents kindly gifted us one of their players, and the match commenced

After about 5 minutes - just as our reinforcements arrived and I was looking to depart the fray - Tommy Bryson was injured trying to rescue ball on the ground, so there we were at 15, including two front rowers in the back row, a flanker in the centre, full back at centre – you get the picture! The first half was a relative triumph. Some dogged defence and an excellent long range try - which saw the ball passing through many hands with Andy Gamble sliding over – left us 12-5 in arrears, and with the wind at our backs in the second half.

As so often proves the case, we were, however, unable to make progress in the second half as several factors started to take their toll on us – the effort expended in the first 40, lack of fitness, loss of concentration, missed tackles, the loss of Dave Hourston and the appearance of a plethora of Lasswade subs who seemed to get bigger and better.

Even though there was still some fine goal line defence, the dam pretty much burst, and we conceded another five or six tries, including one with the last play of the game. Sully, Danger and our two hookers – Gonzo and Martin – put in a hard shift as always, and, given the team and the circumstances, we did just about as well as we could - but the final result was still very disappointing. That makes, I think, four losses of the heavy variety in a row, and the enthusiasm displayed during the matches up to November has waned.

To compete at this level, we need our 'important' players (and all those not selected for the 2s) – they and we know who they are. This is especially true for the upcoming games with our Raeburn Place near neighbours (2/2) and Linlithgow (16/2), who are the only teams to beat us in the first half of the season. I know others such as Coylie and Danger have sent out rallying calls – please answer them. I have no desire to go through another full 80 minutes - and we need revenge!

Finally, many thanks to Stew Mel legend James 'Cheesy' Hume, who was kind enough to take Tommy to hospital, as, of course, we were then down to the 15 on the pitch.

Yosser

Stew Mel Stats

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