DoE challenge not enough for rugby trio
Three youngsters from East Kilbride Rugby Club helped the under-16s to victory after the exertions of earning their Duke of Edinburgh awards.
Lucas Aitken, Rory Blackwood and Ewan Barrie scored tries in a high-scoring win over Livingston, just 72 hours after living in the wilds of Arran as part of their awards programme.
Both sides were short of bodies and the additional space led to tries being scored at a remarkable rate, producing a final score of 39-33.
Meanwhile, the under13’s were also light on numbers and although they struggled during the middle third of their game with Dalziel, they were unfortunate not to tie the contest by the end.
EK opened the scoring when a strong run by Callum Russell from the kick-off created enough of a gap for Michael White to get over the line. Russell himself crossed next before Dalziel had an uninterrupted period of dominance. EK managed to drag themselves back into it during the final 15 minutes and although Russell added his second and Dylan Campbell also got over it was not quite enough.
The theme of teams arriving short-handed carried on through the mini-sections with a great deal of mixing and matching necessary from P1 to P7, just to get some sort of exercise.
The Primary Four’s did better than most at getting two sides on the pitch when they faced Strathaven, but the EK youngsters are clearly further along their learning curve than the visitors.
Luke McCudden opened the scoring for EK and although Strathaven equalised soon after, the home side took control with Jamie Russell and Oliver Orenes going over. The second half was one-way traffic, with Andrew Kitchington (2), Adam Williamson (2), Lewis McAleese and Russell, again, touching down.