STEWARTS MELVILLE 16pts HILLHEAD/JORDANHILL 41pts

While never being at their most fluent at any stage in the game, “Hills” ultimately had too much firepower in their pack to outmuscle the young athletic Stewarts Melville team by four goals, two tries and one drop goal  to two tries and two penalty goals to post a convincing win at a windy Inverleith.

Yet for the first quarter of the game, “Hills”, playing against the wind,  struggled to put any decent phases of play together and were at times rather sloppy in execution of their game plan, particularly in their efforts to make any progress through kicking by hand.  “Stew-Mel” were much more expansive, however,  in their efforts to open up the game,  but, even in the early stages,  struggled to make any clear openings in the “Hills” danger areas.    As it was, “Stew- Mel” had to rely on two well struck penalties from their stand-off,  Liam Steele, to open the scoring, but that was the end of their influence on the scoreboard and the game, due to the “Hills” front five awakening from their unnatural pre-winter hibernation  to being to pressurise their callow opponents.  First of all, Nick McAuley showed his abilities in ball carrying at speed, but the home defence just managed to keep that attack at bay,  before the other well endowed member of the “Hills” front row union, hooker Joe Stafford,  impressed his 115kg. on the proceedings by strong scrummaging and then bullocking short range charges which eventually carried him across the line  at the posts.  Angus Twaddle nudged “Hills” into a one point lead by converting the try.  “Hills” continued to dominate the forward proceedings without , however, ever threatening to break loose, and it took a driving maul, in which Joe Stafford and Duncan McCartney were prominent,  to propel the latter across the line.  The conversion across the face of the wind was narrowly missed by Twaddle, and the half closed with the “Hills” 12 pts to 6 ahead.  The  perceived wisdom on the touchline and in the stand was that “Stew-Mel” had not used the weather conditions well enough to play their running and expansive game  to pressure the “Hills”,  and it was now up the visitors to show if they were capable of using the conditions.

As it was, the “Hills” simply took the play into the home danger areas early in the second half and attacking from second phase ball, stand-off Cameron McCulloch made a half break, passing onto Nick McAuley who charged for the line and offloaded when tackled to inside centre, Dan Witko, to score just to the right of the posts.  Angus Twaddle converted, and the visiting support waited for more of the same.  But the next 10 minutes of play were at best frantic with neither side showing any patience in their field craft, and it took a flash of footballing skill from full back Twaddle who fielded a wayward “Stew-Mel” clearance to drop a wind assisted 45 metre drop goal to take the “Hills” to 22pts to 6 up after 50 minutes.  The fourth and bonus point try came from a line out close to the home try line where the visiting pack’s collective strength was too much for the home pack,  who conceded a drive over try to Stuart Rose.  Worryingly, “Hills” switched off a bit and allowed “Stew Mel” back into the game to score two tries through Turner and captain Blair Tweedie, but any thoughts of a late home fight back were quickly doused by an excellent try from Dan Witko, converted by Angus Twaddle, and a typical Stuart Ross try, supporting a lateral run from Angus Twaddle,  who had  raced across the Inverleith turf like a scaled ginger tomcat.  Twaddle converted his captain’s try to bring an end to the scoring and a good day’s work in the capital for the “Hills” team.

“Hills” President, Gordon Taylor, was full of praise for his coaches and players after the game : “ This was a good all round show.  The forwards came onto a fine game, and are to be congratulated on all their hard work.  I felt the defence was excellent in the middle and around the fringes, because Stewarts Melville did play some good 15 a side stuff,  but just really could not get anywhere with us.  It’s a toughie next week against Aberdeen but who knows if we can play like this?  I am sure our coaches , Colin and Grant, will continue to work the players hard at training. ”

Hillhead/Jordanhill RFC – Angus Twaddle ( Andrew Leslie ) , Haddon Macpherson  ,  Dan Witko , Archie Miller (Robbie Williamson ) ,  Andrew Leslie ( Archie Miller ) ,  Cameron McCulloch ( Angus Twaddle) , David Armstrong , Will Goulden ( David Simm)  , Joe Stafford, Nick McAuley,  Christopher Tulloch  , Duncan McCartney ( David Fisken ) ,   Donald Pitkethly , Stuart Ross ( C ) ( Fraser Paul ) ,  Stuart Rose.  Subs All used