Stew-Mel forced to dig deep by plucky Hamilton

The unfancied visitors led 18-10 at the break and, although they eventually succumbed to a home side who raised their game in the second period, could take a great deal of encouragement from their performance.

Hamilton opened the scoring with a try from Craig Inglis and, after falling behind to unconverted tries from Liam Steele and Hayden Lingard, who was subsequently despatched to the sin bin, responded with two touchdowns and a penalty by Ross Inglis.

An animated interval discussion in the Stewart’s Melville huddle had the desired effect and they trimmed the deficit to three points when Alex Edmonstone claimed try number three after a powerful forward drive.

The visitors’ cause was not helped by two yellow cards and the game slipped from their grasp when Andy Hughes sprinted over from 50 metres for the bonus point try, converted by Mike Hanning, which handed Stewart’s Melville the lead with 60 minutes gone. A penalty by Kaide Whiting completed the job.

Stewart’s Melville coach Bruce MacNaughton was happy with the five point haul, saying: “Our objective was a bonus point win. This is a tough league.”

His counterpart Dale Lyon conceded that promotion is now an unrealistic objective, but warned: “I don’t think we’ve said our last words in the Prem B campaign. We have a few more things to throw in there.”

Scorers: Stewart’s Melville – Tries: Steele, Lingard, Edmonstone, Hughes. Con Hanning. Pen: Whiting. Hamilton – Tries: C Inglis, R Inglis (2). Pen: R Inglis.

Stewart’s Melville: L Steele; R Borthwick, M Hannay, H Lingard, A Hughes; M Hanning, K Whiting; W Aitken, R McKenzie, A Edmonstone, S Brewster, M Wilson, A Lean, D Sangster, P Hendry.

Hamilton: R Steele; C Stannage, S Murray, C Inglis, R Inglis; D Sutherland, S Turnbull; C McLaughlin, D McGrath, D Gemmell, T Rhind, A Marshall, A Hill, G McCowan, J Selfridge. Subs Used: T Malley, O McLeish, J Barber-Fleming, R Jamieson.

Referee: K White.