Tight win for rugby club:
Team leapfrog Greenock into second place
East Kilbride Rugby Club bounced back from last week’s pre-Halloween horror show at Irvine to outlast a very good Greenock Wanderers side – and leapfrog them in the table.
The visitors touched down with the final play of regulation time but fluffed the subsequent opportunity to tie the match.
While a draw would have been far from a travesty it would have been slightly harsh on the home side who got their reward for what was, by far, their best showing of the campaign.
From the pre-match sidelines it looked clear that EK would be in for a tough contest, and not just because Greenock arrived having replaced their hosts atop the table last Saturday.
Rather, Greenock looked, one through 15, like a grown-up rugby team.
While it is true that a line-up containing the likes of Ally Dalgleish and Paul Rosie can never be classed as small, it is equally true that EK carry a smattering of callow youths along with one or two slightly built adults.
Strangely, it was EK who had the physical edge. The home scrum was dominant with Eddie Beaton in particular giving his opposite number a hard time. The EK backs were dwarfed by their opponents but stood up to the physical challenge superbly when Greenock ran at them, and in Robbie Greenfield had the one back on either side who could make ground through heavy traffic each time he had the ball.
At the other end of the spectrum the quick feet of Aidan Stott outside Greenfield caused Greenock defensive problems when in possession and Lewis Brown’s finishing continues to impress.
Where East Kilbride had the defining edge though was the ability of key forwards to get over the gain line each time and thereby keep the side on the front foot. Every time Rosie or Scott Shankie were in possession they were able to get through the first tackler and make life easier for their compadres following behind.
The performance was nowhere near perfect. EK struggled, helped perhaps by some lenient officiating, to cope with the pressure caused by Greenock’s blitz defence and should probably have kicked a little more to counter the tactic.
It was though, a night and day showing compared to last week. In addition to actually playing heaps better, game management was vastly improved and everyone put some thought into what they were doing.
For the record, tries went to Stott, Brown and a penalty try, and EK now sit second in the table, three points behind Allan Glens.
TEAM: 1. McLellan, 2. Anderson, 3. E. Beaton, 4. Dalgleish, 5. Irvine, 6. O’Neill, 7. R. Beaton, 8. Rosie, 9. Ellison, 10. Murray, 11. Hagerty, 12. Greenfield, 13. Stott, 14. L. Brown, 15. Dryburgh.
Replacements: McLean, Shankie, Blackwood and Stewart.