1stXV lost to Merchiston

A tough start to the season but lots of positives

Before kick off, we stood alongside Merchiston on a gloriously sunny afternoon for a minute's silence to remember HM The Queen during this time of National Mourning.

The scoreline does not reflect the quality of our play in what was always going to be a difficult opening game of the season.  To be honest, we probably had 60% of possession throughout the game with the forwards working really hard at the breakdown, an area we dominated for much of the game, and managed to get a number of turnovers throughout the match which was really good to see.  Xander, Zak and Thabo all led from the front and we made good ground, getting quick ruck ball again and again.  Although the back line were up against a couple of big powerful runners, we worked so hard in defence, trying to get our line speed fast and get out tackles in early, and we did this for 20 minutes in the second half when we stopped Merchiston from scoring which was a fabulous effort.  With the ball, Charles had a great game at 10, playing very flat, taking good options and putting Conrad away in to space; Rafa ran some excellent lines too, learning a lot and he had a good debut for the team, defending well too.  Ewan had an excellent game at full back too, winning turnovers and showing quick feet when faced with a wall of blue, and he never lost the ball in contact which was excellent.  We conceded four tries in the first half, but had opportunities ourselves and just weren't;t clinical enough, perhaps cutting back inside a couple of times when we should have moved the ball out in to the wide channels more, but we played some excellent rugby and even though we played up the hill in the second half, we were never overwhelmed and showed plenty of heart, skill and on another day would have gone over for a couple of tries.

I was delighted with the effort the boys put in, the real sense of teamwork that was evident throughout and not once did heads drop which bodes well for the rest of what is a long season of rugby.  I was really pleased with the positive attitude at the end of the game, as you could see how close we came to really challenging them, but without a big runner out wide to cash in on all the ball we had, it was difficult when they had a couple of big boys who took some stopping as the game wore on, but not once did we take a backward step.  Mr Appleson, Head of Sport at Fettes, refereed the game superbly and he was very impressed with the rugby we played, commenting on the way we looked after the ball, used it well and just lacked that big runner to make the most of the possession we had.  I am looking forward to us building on this as a team, and we have the makings of a really good side who will be too strong for most of our opposition who lie ahead, so well done, boys.  A lot to look forward to and you really did stick to the task today which made me very proud and there is a lot of good rugby to be played by this team over the coming weeks.

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