Rugby players learn from experience

RUGBY football changing rooms are not often the venues for literary debate. However, reminding the Lerwick team, which had just succumbed to Mackie FPs by 54 - 6, of R. L. Stevenson's oft quoted but rarely completed maxim "To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour", Bob Clueness, the Lerwick second row, did indeed spark such a debate, the likes of which I trust will never be seen at Althing and which did no credit to the great man himself, or indeed to Robert Louis Stevenson.
It has to be said though, cliched as it may be , that many a true word is spoken in jest, and so it is with the Edinburgh bard's words for the Virginibus Puerisque.

Last year Lerwick RFC played Aberdeen Wanderers and Gordonians on a mini tour and a s a result were accepted into the Whitbread Cup competition for this season. Throughout the winter the team has been playing and training with this in mind. Two weeks ago beating Huntly in the first round was the dream start for Lerwick, the problem being the next round - the semi-final would be against Ellon or Mackie FP first and second in their league respectively.

However, one does travel hopefully and the Lerwick team prepared themselves to play whatever fate would choose. As it turned out Ellon and Mackie played on the Saturday Lerwick flew south to Aberdeen. Mackie were victorious 27 - 0 so it was to Stonehaven for Lerwick last Saturday to face Mackie FPs with a 3pm kick-off.

Winning the toss Mike Skinner decided for once to play against the wind in the first half, hoping that, having played the day before, Mackie would definitely tire in the second half and then be gleefully put to the sword by a rampaging Lerwick XV - that was the plan.

Within five minutes Lerwick had found out exactly what they were up against. While obviously not in the same league as the top class units in Scotland, Mackie are as good as it gets in the lower leagues.

Mackie are a strong well-drilled unit, not particularly big up front but mobile and with a good pace and support. their backs are all strong runners, all fast, some very fast, and on Sunday they ran very good lines against a side which, and no discredit to Lerwick, was not used to defending against such running, and whose main problem was standing back, allowing the Mackie side room to play.

The Lerwick side though were not without their own talents and while it is true Mackie had the upper hand through the game they did not dominate every aspect of it.

In the scrummage after early problems, the Lerwick eight did extremely well with Mal Smith, Wilson Shaw and john Kay in the front row giving a platform for john Roy Nicolson and John Tait in the powerhouse to do their thing. While a lot of ball was slow coming to Chris Hayton at number eight it was every bit as fast as Mackies own.

The lineouts were with the weather conditions, a lottery and that definitely helped Lerwick, who also defended lineout possession from Mackie very well. An indication of how well the Lerwick pack played at the set piece anyway is that the Mackie side only scored once through a forward, in conditions where had they been totally dominant they would have kept the ball up front and scored a bag load.

Out wide agin the story was not all gloom. Skinner at number nine tried to mix the game up by varying options. Derek Ross at stand off also varied his options and, when he had to, made some tough first tackles on Mackie loose forwards. Nick Cope, Bob MacBain and John Leask at centre all tackled to their utmost. Out wide John Thompson and Andy Angus were unfortunately too often exposed to three or four players bearing down on them - no win situations which they both dealt with as well as anybody on the team could have. It was the same for Robert Geddes at full back, whose own attacking game was severly restricted to long-range drives from deep in his own half, as well as two beautiful penalties which gave Lerwick their six points.

Lerwick travelled to this competition to learn, to develop new players and old and to assess where they stand in relation to their colleagues in the North of Scotland. Teams do not improve without defeat, they only improve through it, and all the players involved last weekend, the fortnight before in Huntly and in the months before at playing and coaching who could not travel now go on to work on their game, learning from their experiences and their mistakes to become better players and a better team - players good enough to be in the Inter-county team and good enough to win it at the end of the summer. To this end training continues on Thursday evenings and Sundays.

The Lerwick side would like to thank Calum Johnstone of Wanderers, the SIOC for financial support, and Paul Woods for his coaching commitment. The captain, Mike Skinner would also like to thank all the players for their superb efforts both in Huntly and Mackie.

Team; Mal Smith, Wilson Shaw, JohnKay, Bob Cluness, John-Roy Nicolson, Jimmy Mercer, Lyndsey Leslie, Chris Hayton, Mike Skinner, Derek Ross, Nick Cope, John Leask, John Thompson, Robert McBain, Andy Angus, Robert Geddes, John Tait.