Watsonians vs Stew Mel, 18/3/06

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Squad

The Stewart's Melville FP RFC team to play Watsonians at Myreside on Saturday, kick off 3.30 pm, is:

There are a number of changes to the team named when this fixture was originally due to be played a fortnight ago. These occur because we have not had any age group players released to us this time around, so we are missing Ross Samson, Dave McCall, Andrew Easson, Colin Goudie and Richie Vernon. Ross Rennie is also away with the Scotland Seven at the Commonwealth Games.

I am, however, fully confident that the team we have been able to select for the short trip to Myreside can do the business for us.

I look forward to seeing the red, black and gold hordes heading across Colinton Road in time for the 3.30 pm kickoff - note that this has been delayed to allow you time to watch Scotland play Italy in Rome beforehand.

Let's make it eight wins in a row on Saturday!

Malky's Musings

Saturday saw us defend our seven game unbeaten run in the league at Myreside. Our opponents fielded an extremely strong team and the Stew Mel support understood that we were in for a tough encounter.

We started poorly, conceding a penalty goal within the first minute. This was followed by a converted try on ten minutes after our opponents had crafted space intelligently in the midfield with a well timed inside pass (Watsonians 10 Stew Mel 0).

When we played Watsonians at home in October, we gifted them a lead of a similar magnitude; on that day, we continued to leak points and were well beaten. Saturday demonstrated how far we have come as a team as we gradually clawed our way back into the contest through sheer hard work and pride in our defensive efforts.

Richard Borthwick narrowed the gap after 15 minutes with a penalty goal which was awarded following a breakdown infringement. Around five minutes later, we generated a sustained period of pressure, with the forwards repeatedly driving around the fringes and creating good quality fast ball. The home defence struggled to cope and our captain, Paul Wharakura, broke free to rumble home. Borth struck an excellent conversion from close to the touch line and the scores were leveled (10-10).

We retained the momentum, and, with only seven minutes left before the break, we were awarded a penalty under the home posts after Cameron Mather had chosen to end a Stew Mel attack by killing the ball. Borth converted to give us a narrow lead at half time. Our opponents were also reduced to fourteen men as Mather was yellow carded for his sins.

Shortly after the restart, we stretched our lead through another Borthwick penalty as Watsonians again encroached when we were close to breaching their line. We continued to apply pressure, and the travelling support must have been starting to believe that we were going to grab four invaluable league points.

We were, however, dealt a severe blow on 57 minutes when a loose pass in the midfield was intercepted by the Watsonians replacement hooker, and his support broke free to score in front of the home stand. The reliable Watsonians kicker, Bernie Hennessey, added the additional two points from the touch line (Watsonians 17 – Stew Mel 16).

The Stew Mel team picked itself up once more and the game took a further twist with around fifteen minutes left on the clock. The home stand off, James Easson, was pressurised when clearing his lines, and our second row, Ben Leathes, charged down his kick. Leathesy gathered the ball and scampered towards the line before releasing Stuart Clark to touch down for five points. Borth again slotted the conversion and we again led by six points (17 – 23).

With less than ten minutes left on the clock, we conceded a penalty when under serious pressure, and Hennessey narrowed the gap to three points.

We were then forced to defend numerous attacks from the home side, and only some heroic tackling was containing the dangerous Watsonians three quarters. It appeared as though this defence would see us home, however, with only two minutes left on the clock, we were turned over in a scrum close to our own line, and outside center Brian Rennie capitalised on quick ball to score in the corner. This concluded the scoring, with Watsonians eventually winning by 25 points to 23.

Our losing bonus point now takes us four points clear of the relegation zone, but our nearest rivals, Boroughmuir, have a game in hand. 'Muir play Hawick at Meggetland on Saturday before playing their last game of the season late in April versus Heriot's. We play Hawks in our final game of the season at home on Saturday, and I suspect that we must win if we are to finish fourth from bottom.

The effort that the players have been putting in over the past several weeks has been excellent, and our support has been treated to some great rugby. I am very proud of the team, and I hope to see a huge crowd at Inverleith on Saturday to cheer them on to our eleventh victory of the season. I suspect that there will be further twists in this enthralling relegation battle.

Malky

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