Selkirk surrender first-half advantage

Ciaran Whyte scores Selkirk's sole try against Stewart's Melville FP (picture by Grant Kinghorn)

Departing South African utility forward Ian Oosthuizen, in his final game for Selkirk, played a pivotal role in the build-up to their first try. In 17 minutes, Gavin Craig broke clean through the middle and Oosthuizen was up in support to take the fly-half’s off-load and give a scoring pass to Ciaran Whyte.

The full-back converted his own try and, six minutes later, sent over a penalty to put the visitors 10-0 ahead. The hosts hit back with a Seb Trotter try, converted by Morrison. On the stroke of half time, they won a strike against the head to set up another try by Angus Wallace. Morrison’s successful conversion gave Stewart’s Melville a 14-10 interval lead.

More unforced errors and a yellow card for James Bett saw Selkirk struggle to regain any kind of rhythm in the second half. Although Whyte kicked two more penalties, Stew-Mel notched a third try, by Ferguson, converted by Morrison, for victory.