Injury hit 2nd XV narrowly beaten by Stewarts Melville 2nd XV

Linlithgow 2^nd XV 14 – 22 Stewarts Melville 2^nd XV

Saturday 26^th October 2024

Match Report by Des Martin

This home game versus Stewart’s Melville was going to be a tight affair as it was 2nd versus third in the league. This was the third game versus national 2 opposition reserves in three weeks with the Reds twos winning one, drawing one and eventually losing to Stewart’s Melville.

The Reds were suffering from injury and illness and after a bit of chasing had ended up with 17 bodies. With one promising he would be there as soon as he finished his shift, which was around ko time.

That said a good seconds took the field with most people playing in their chosen position.

However as usual it took 20 minutes for us to wake up and by that time Melville’s had scored 14 fairly easy points. It’s then a hard slog to gain the upper hand but the forwards started to carry well with Matty Sommevile, Dev Devlin, and Alec Mc Hardy all carrying across the gain line.
The ball was distributed well by McCartney and McLean at standoff and carried by Martin and Wan through the centre.
Eventually McLean crashed over from close range and then converted his own try. 7. 14. To the visitors.

This team in the pack had a few changes from the week before and Pat Bennie and James Galbraith were taking time to settle into the seconds pace for different reasons.

Everybody was manning up, tackling hard and making Stewart’s Melville work for their possession. James Roulston, Alex McHardy and Jonny Pegg were getting in the opposition’s faces and this unsettled Stewart’s Melville’s forwards.

Unfortunately a poor lineout for the Reds gifted a second row from the visitors a clear run for the line after he had run over the hapless Linlithgow winger.

The Reds scored another try from Gregor McLean again converted by himself – Gregor McLean 14. Stewart’s Melville 19

The Reds played some good rugby over the 80 mins but were always chasing the game.

Colin Devlin moved into hooker for a spell allowing Adrien Mochrie to come on at loose head Struan McLean came on at scrum half and Alexander Burns got a 15 minute cameo at the end and did ok for his first rugby game.

Stewart’s Melville’s got another penalty at the final whistle leaving the score 22 – 14 to the visitors

No second team game next week. A cup game for the club versus Lasswade this week.