British & Irish Cup: Success suggests club standards are improving

By GARY HEATLY
Published on 16/10/2012 00:00

Stirling County head coach Graeme Young believes the opening weekend’s successes in the British & Irish Cup by the Scottish teams show that standards are improving below the pro level.

Often the club game in this country is talked down but, on Saturday, Stirling County, Melrose and Gala all recorded victories over pro or semi-pro sides in the cross-border event and Dundee HSFP gave a good account of themselves in defeat by Swansea.

The best that our club game had to offer went toe-to-toe with bigger and more physical opponents and came out on top, showing just how important the event is if we are to keep players from the amateur leagues pushing for pro contracts.

Still on a high from his side’s 40-25 Pool Two victory over Welsh side Neath, Young said: “Speaking to the Neath guys afterwards, they were saying that they had only made three changes from their full-strength side and it goes to show that everyone is taking the British & Irish Cup seriously this season.

“Our team came out of the blocks flying though and the performances by some of our younger players like Sean Kennedy, Adam Ashe and Ruairidh Leishman were superb. They showed that they have great ability and playing in this tournament will only help them in taking their game to the next level.

“We now head to Bedford this coming weekend with the guys confident and, although we know it is hard to play against guys who are training more often than us and who have access to more video analysis and such like, we will go there and give it a real go.”

And after Melrose’s 30-29 nail-biting win over Doncaster Knights in Pool Eight, their player/assistant coach John Dalziel wants the club to strive for a quarter-final place.

In the previous three years, Scotland’s entrants have recorded a sprinkling of victories, but only Ayr have put together a string of performances to make it through to the knock-out stages.

However, Dalziel believes reaching the last eight is not out of the realms of possibility for the men from the Greenyards.

The experienced back-row said: “The first thing you notice when you go down to places like Doncaster is the sheer size of their players compared to our squad and, when they saw the likes of our smaller guys in [captain] Bruce Colvine and Sam Chalmers warming up, they might have thought of us as an easy touch.

“What they lack in size, though, our team make up for in heart and sheer endeavour and, in the second half as we were coming back to win, we were playing at a pace that they could not handle. It was great to hear that Gala and Stirling County won too and we have to talk up our club players rather than being negative from time to time.” Before they can think of a last-eight tie after Christmas, though, Melrose have to just look at the next challenge in front of them, which is Llandovery on Saturday at home.

They have won all seven competitive matches they have played this term, six in the Welsh Premiership and then against Nottingham in their British & Irish Cup opener.

“They will be tough opponents, but there will be a big crowd at the Greenyards and these are the matches everyone wants to play in,” Dalziel added.

And such was the performance of Gala’s young players against London Scottish in Pool Six that head coach George Graham admitted that they may well all keep their places for the trip to Llanelli this weekend, even if pro players are made available.