West Of Scotland vs Stew Mel, 10/10/09

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Squad

The Stewart's Melville FP RFC team to play West Of Scotland FC at Burnbrae on Saturday, kick off 3 pm, is:

A settled look to the team for this week's road trip to play West at Burnbrae. The backs are unchanged, while there are only two changes in the pack. Ross and Ruairi swap places in the front row, while Paul Voy replaces Harry Bonn in the back row.

Harry is away at a wedding in Jersey this week, while Paul is available again after his wife gave birth to a baby boy called Cole - congratulations to all concerned!

The only other change on the bench sees fit again Liam Steele replace Michael Doneghan, who is away in India with the Scotland Sevens team.

The team bus will leave Inverleith at 12.15 pm on Saturday, so please pitch up at noon if you'd like a lift to Burnbrae. The 2s are also away to West on Saturday, so please bear in mind that spaces on the bus will be limited.

West sit just five points above us in the table, so this has to go down as a winnable fixture - please do your bit to help make that the case!

If you're driving, directions to Burnbrae are here.

Mike Sims

Match Report

Seven games without a win - should we be despondent? Certainly not!

Last Saturday against West of Scotland we had nearly got through the first quarter unscathed. Our very own 'happy snapper', Bill McNie, had just remarked, "We're suffering from a serious outbreak of rugby!" when, with seventeen minutes on the Burnbrae clock, West played the ball wide to their back row man Fisken. Our defence obliged the supercharged No.8 with a few token tackle attempts before he passed a nice ball to their useful prop McLaren, who went over to open West's account. Davis converted, and he was again bang on the money when, a few minutes later, he converted another touchdown.

The second try scorer, Kerr, had also benefited from Fisken, who had, once more, parted our defence like a hot knife through butter before offloading to the centre. West's third try was straight from the restart, with home fullback Wright finishing a well worked play by his team mates which they failed to convert.

On the verge of half time, Hayden demonstrated his excellent skill as a 'juggler' and ball player when, having chipped forward with his boot, he collected his own pass to touch down for our first try. Seumas missed with his conversion attempt to make the score 19-5 to our hosts at the break.

In the early part of the game we had been fairly evenly matched, but now we looked as if we could be on the wrong end of a rout. At the interval whistle, Moff quickly led his young men from the field and into the dressing room to share with the team his views on their effort and skill in the first forty. Only those present at the talk and a few passers-by were privy to what exactly the 1st XV coach said. Was it the proverbial 'hairdryer' - or a 'Gissing'? Well, whatever motivational style Graeme Moffat employed, it certainly did the trick.

It was as if we had brought on 15 replacements. OK, West did get another score by Dempsey - and the bonus point - four minutes into the second half, but we were taking the game to West; we were tackling, rucking and mauling; we were winning the 50/50 balls. Sam's line out throwing was excellent, and, although we had lost Phil, Paul and then Ben, we were holding our own. Yes, the scrum, normally our only 'constant' this season, did creak just a little bit when West brought on Gordon Bulloch, but it was still more than adequate for the task in hand.

But it was our backs who began to show flair, skill and ambition. Borth was back to his good old reliable self with a 'Captain's Try' on 55 minutes, our second touchdown. Borth was once again 'a safe pair of hands' on Saturday, leading his men from the front. Coxy - oft' rightly or wrongly criticised for his eccentricity and 'flair' - was outstanding and was named our Man of the Match by West. On the hour, our bold lad Alex had the audacity to rip the ball from the aforementioned Fisken, the first half scourge of the backs, and he then placed it cheekily over the try line for our third score, which Seumas - who shines more brightly with every game - duly converted.

Fisken wasn't for leaving it that way and replicated his earlier move to claim West's, I have to say well deserved, fifth try on 70 minutes, which Davis put through the uprights with ease. Seumas wasn't giving in, though, and, having seen how easy it is to score in the corner, went over for our final try, earning us two bonus points.

Amongst the backs, Liam Steele was simply excellent, making some fine breaks and causing West no amount of trouble: in my opinion, he played his best game for Colleges, so far. Brewster and Callum at flanker - together with all the forwards - put in big hits and used 'pick and go' so often that, at one point, they confused themselves as to who had the ball, so surrendered it to a pair of eager hands - unfortunately those of an opposition player!

Most people outwith the team and our true support will already have made up their minds about the outcome of our next match. The coach will be bringing his motivational chat forward to around 2.50 pm this Saturday. Thus it is not Stew/Mel that will be under any pressure - we can go out and play rugby as we did in the second half at Burnbrae, and who knows what we might achieve.

So - definitely no need to be despondent!

Mercury

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