Down Inverleith Way 7

The deluge of Friday and Saturday morning created a quagmire at Inverleith and put paid to the highly anticipated visit of league leaders Dumfries Saints.

Through the vagaries of the Cup and league fixture arrangements, the Southerners are, however, due to travel to Edinburgh again on Cup duty this Saturday, and there have been suggestions that this encounter might ‘double up’ to decide the result in both competitions. This is not, however, on the cards at the time of writing – but, whatever is at stake, this is a crunch meeting for the RBG, and, hopefully, the players will be highly charged and motivated to get a positive result.

Surprisingly, there must have been an umbrella over Raeburn Place, and, within the chaos of Stockbridge’s latest building development, the pitch proved perfectly playable for the Development XV to match up against Edinburgh Accies 2nd XV in East Reserve League Division 1.

This was a highly entertaining and exciting 80 minutes with both sides producing some excellent rugby. The lead changed hands several times before two late breakaway converted tries saw the Academical Football Club home by 41-25.

There is no denying the Accies five points and they had some old hands (at least one with Premiership experience) to steady the ship, but the frustrating thing from a Stew Mel point of view was that this could – and perhaps should – have been a victory. Overall, we looked a more enterprising side – obviously this is a slightly biased opinion! – and appeared the more likely to score. We, perhaps, lacked a little ‘killer instinct’ when it really mattered.

Rugby is a balance between enjoyment, participation, good fellowship and winning if possible, and, sometimes, it appears from the touchline that RBG sides underestimate the importance of the latter. A little belief in one’s ability goes a long way. That ability exists throughout the club is not really in question.

No College rugby this week as the October holiday rolls on but Saturday 2nd November sees fixtures against Robert Gordon’s and Dundee while Tuesday 5th November sees Cup Quarter Finals for the 1st XV (Dollar Academy – away) and the U16A XV (Strathallan – home).

See you at Inverleith.

Phil Waine

Match photo c/o OGBlakeman Photography