Stewart's Melville 22 – 22 Kirkcaldy

Kirkcaldy RFC were the visitors to Inverleith on Saturday on a freezing cold, dreich day. Coming into this fixture, both sides have had middling seasons though both are able to produce high scoring affairs, particularly in games between the two teams.

One of the youngest Stew Mel sides ever took the field with three lads who are currently S6 pupils at SMC starting and recent leaver Evan McDonald on the bench. Michael Hatrick and Greg Turner made welcome returns to the 1st XV squad after absences. George Lee came in at 12 for Callum O'Hagan and Chris Baikie started at tight head prop with Morgan shifting to hooker.

The game started indifferently for Stew Mel as they conceded a penalty almost straight from the kick off, allowing Kirkcaldy a beach head in the home side's 22. The early pressure was repelled, however, and Stew Mel scored the first try of the day, Rory Anderson touching down from a lineout maul to make it 5-0.

Kirkcaldy then replied with a converted try of their own to take the lead. Not to be outdone by his front row colleague, Morgan scored in clubhouse corner for the home side to retake the lead 10-7. The first half finished with Kirkcaldy kicking a penalty to bring themselves level at the break.

The second half got underway with Stew Mel attacking the mist covered castle end and the home side opened the try scoring with George Lee running in from half way to score in the Arboretum corner. A remarkable solo effort from the returning centre. The visitors were not for rolling over, though, and, with Chris enjoying a rest on the naughty step, the Kirkcaldy pack pushed the seven home forwards over their line for a converted try to retake the lead 15-17 on the 60 minute mark.

Showing great resilience, the home side came back into the game with a number of forwards carrying effectively into the Kirkcaldy defence. From a ruck on the Kirkcaldy 22, replacement Euan Bowen identified a space in the defensive line to put Thomas Bald through and Tam ran in under the posts for the bonus point score. Adam converted to make it Stew Mel 22-17 Kirkcaldy. The Fifers weren't finished, though, and continued to pressurise the home defence until, with the last play of the game, they scored their third try to bring the scores level at 22 all. The conversion was missed and the game finished a draw. Phew!

Thanks to the parents of the Lions section players for filling the clubhouse for the pre match lunch and swelling spectator numbers for the game.

This was the second game in a row where we earned a four try bonus point; there were also a number of points left out on the pitch which is encouraging, particularly as we played for 60 minutes with 14 players due to two yellow cards. A very young team will be much better for having experienced the challenge of facing a physically imposing Kirkcaldy side.

Good luck to our friends from Beveridge Park for the rest of the season and we look forward to welcoming them back to Inverleith next season.

We head south of the border this Saturday to play already relegated Berwick at Scremerston. Kick off is 2 pm.

 

David Calder

 

Photographs courtesy of Jax Mackenzie Photography