Rampant EK boost title hopes with win
Nine-try haul puts the pressure back on rivals
EAST KILBRIDE ................................. 61 CAMBUSLANG ................................... 3
RICHARD BEATON
East Kilbride Rugby Club overwhelmed local rivals Cambuslang on Saturday to haul themselves back into the West Divsion One title race.
Allan Steel’s side prouduced a performance even more emphatic that a 61-3 scoreline would infer and their day got even better with the news rivals Allan Glens and Stewartry both tasted defeat.
At Torrance House, the visitors got the scoreboard moving with an early penalty, but from this point on it was one-way traffic.
EK ran in nine tries through Evan
Middleton (2), Roddy Beaton, Ally Dalgleish, Paul Rosie, Iain Brown and one, on his debut, for impressive hooker Jaden Hewitt.
Grant Dryburgh crossed twice and converted eight of the nine tries for a personal haul of 26 points, which is about 21 more than his faither managed in all his years labouring in the front-row coalface.
The value of Saturday’s fivepoint haul was brought home in the changing rooms afterward when word got through that the top two in the league, Allan Glens and Stewartry, had both lost, the former for the first time this season.
All of a sudden, the promotion quest for East Kilbride is most definitely back on.
This Saturday East Kilbride visit new table-toppers Kilmarnock, who EK edged earlier in the season.
TEAM: Mclellan, Hewitt, Mason,
Dalgleish, Rosie, O’Neill, R. Beaton, Thornton, Ellison, Murray, Haggerty,
Greenfield, Stott, I Brown, Dryburgh.
Replacements: Irvine, Jaap, M. Brown and Ferguson.
• Meanwhile, the Reserves endured a torrid afternoon in going down 70-7 at home to Greenock.
Without clutching at straws though there were several positives for player-manager, Bruce Beggans, with his own, slow motion, lengthof-the-field try chief amongst these.
More democratically though,
Beggans was delighted to give five more guys their first ever game of rugby. Incredibly, the Reserves have
a playing pool of around 35 at the
them only taking up the game in September.
moment, with over a third of
• The all-conquering under-15 side maintained their unbeaten record but not before opponents Dalziel gave them a massive fright with their very physical approach.
First half tries from Robert
Calderwood and Mark Neilson gave EK a 14-5 lead at the break but they repeatedly forgot their brief as the game went on and got sucked into the arm-wrestling contest which favoured their visitors.
With the game tied and time officially over, EK snatched victory at the death when Keiran McCluskey created just enough space for Calderwood to finish in the corner.
• The under-14’s were unfortunate to come up against a very well-drilled Glasgow High-Kelvinside unit, and despite the power of Lucas Graham and the elusive running of Mackenzie
Roy, had only a Simon Calderwood try to cheer about in a 35-5 loss.
• The under-13’s mirrored the 15’s in putting Dalziel away.
With Logan McGeogh an absolute menace around the tackle area EK had plenty of ball to work with and ran in a number of spectacular tries in a 52-12 victory.
Amongst the most eye-catching was when Blair Sidwell intercepted on half-way and had sufficient gas to outstrip the visitors defence. Mark Hendrie’s score was a coaching dream as he first supported, then communicated with Cameron McDaid when McDaid made a great break but was hauled down just short of the line.