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Boroughmuir Bears 14 v 22 Stewarts Melville
Reporter:
Mark Greene
The bears
entertained Stew Mel 3rd XV on the main pitch today
but unfortunately the occasion resulted in the Bears
first defeat of the season. The Bears had a strong
squad with Chris Evans starting at 10.
The Bears took
to the pitch with a lot of confidence as Stew Mel
had only arrived onto the pitch 5 minutes before
kick off, unfortunately,this was not a good omen as
Stew Mel attacked the Bears from the kick off. It
was obvious from the early exchanges that this Stew
Mel team was a very different and more experienced
team from the previous encounter in the autumn.
Stew Mel
attacked the Bears out wide but what was very
noticeable was their offloads in the tackle, despite
some good tackling the Bears have not really
encountered offloading of this standard this season,
on the other hand, the first try conceded involved
4 Bear tacklers and one Stew Mel try scorer. The
Bears struggled to get into the game and the lack of
possession in the first 20 minutes was starting to
become a serious problem. It was not too long before
Stew Mel were 17-0 ahead. The Bears were forced
into replacing the injured Jamie Macrae early on,
Steven Harris moved from 9 to the fullback position
while Elliott Kempsell was brought on at 9.
The Bears
started a fightback when having moved up the pitch
but just when the Bears started to get into their
flow, prop Bruce Mcconnachie was yellow carded for
punching an opponent, unfortunately the referee
could not distinguish between swinging his arm
around an opposing player for a tackle, and a
punch. Dougie Scott on day release from the Royal
Canadian Immigration services was brought in to
replace Bruce.
As had been
discussed pre match, Coach McCallum had asked the
forwards to use the driving maul to gain field
position, the Bears used this effectively however,
the seasoned Stew Mel pack were quite effective at
disrupting this. The Bears then started to press
forward, Phil Bloomer was held up just over the line
after a great defensive tackle from one of the Stew
Mel players. Towards the end of the first half,
after some traditional Bears forward drives, Justin
Tito raced to within 5 yards of the line before
Chris Evans managed to get over the line for the
Bears first points.
At half time,
7-19, Coach McCallum told the players to start
making their tackles count and to start playing our
game, we had allowed Stew Mel to dictate the game.
The second
half proved to be even more frustrating that the
1st. The Bears had a lot more possession but the
awaited comeback and spark never arrived. Time and
time again, the Bears worked their way upfield only
to lose possession to turnover ball, poor handling
or stupidity. The Stew Mel side were very effective
at slowing the ball, the slow ball to the backline
was very easy to defend.
The Bears
managed to make a couple of excursions into the Stew
Mel 22, Eliott Kempsell was held up over the line
after 50 minutes, the resultant scrum went to Stew
Mel and they managed to clear their lines again. On
the hour mark Justin Tito
managed to juggle the ball over the line for a try
under the posts to put themselves back in the game.
Unfortunately, they failed to capitalise, Stew Mel
pushed for a territorial game in the Bears half, the
Bears response became more desperate as the game
went and in the end the indiscipline led to a Stew
Mel penalty to seal the game.
The dressing
room after the match was morgue like especially
after Captain Rod had vented his displeasure,
fortunately Coby's venting lightened the mood!
Unfortunately,
this was a hard lesson for the Bears who were more
than capable of beating this Stew Mel team on any
other day. In a game like this we need our big game
players but we had too many below par performances
in key positions today as signalled by Coach
McCallum's early substitutions for a number of
players. The support play was poor at crucial
times and too many players found themselves isolated
at the breakdown. The backs were never really at
the races today, this was partially due to the slow
and inconsistent play of the forwards but on
occasion the backs play was slow and inaccurate.
Referee Watch:
Have not mentioned him too much in the main report,
I was saving it. He yellow carded Bruce for
punching, Bruce does not punch, thats Coby's job.
He was inconsistent throughout the game, he failed
to manage the breakdown allowing Stew Mel to slow
down and steal the ball, he allowed Stew Mel to feed
every scrum but penalised the Bears for the same.
Ball held up over the line and he gave the scrum to
Stew Mel, he over played advantage, he refused to
penalise them for holding onto the ball or the
tackler rolling away. His officiating prevented the
Bears from getting up to speed just when we they
really needed it.
Man of the
Match: Despite the result there were a few notable
performances. Eliott Kempsell was an early
substitute and he proved to be a real thorn in the
side of his opposite man. Justin Tito made some hard
yards up the middle of the park and scored despite
the bobbling ball, Gary Shaw put in some excellent
tackles on the wing while Napoleon Harris proved to
be an able rearguard. In the forwards Phil Bloomer
was his usual blunderbuss best while Sean Mcnicol
carried the ball more today than he has all season.
Man of the Match is Andy Smith, as one of the
smallest guys on the park he put in a lot of big
hits on bigger
opponents while his pace across the parks is an
advantage every time he plays.
Next Week the
Bears host Murrayfield, the previous match was a
close 12-12 draw. Coaches McCallum and Buchan will
be hoping for a return to normal service.
Quote of the
Day: Censored
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