I've done a search and most say R gear difficulties was due to the way subaru design their gearboxes. You mean its the same as Gear 1 as well ?!

Sucks to depress the clutch through out the trafficlights especially 1 of those that stops all 4 ways to allow pedestrain to cross.

I'm getting my clutch replaced soon at Xspeed and I'll get them to have a look and see if anything could be done while I'm at it.