A kick where it hurts
Last-gasp penalty miss
Cambuslang ..................... 16 East Kilbride ...................... 17 Cambuslang Rugby head coach Jamie Seery has called for more composure from his troops, after they lost another heartbreaker against East Kilbride on Saturday.
The Lang’s first league game of the season saw them go down 17-16, a fortnight after they lost by a single point to Annan in the Shield tournament.
The local lads missed a golden opportunity to snatch victory when Louis Senter missed a penalty with the last play of the game.
Jamie said: “We just need a bit more composure, and to slow things down in attack. We were a bit over-eager at times and throwing passes that weren’t necessarily on.
“That handed East Kilbride the ball back too often. If we had kept the ball better we could have continued to build pressure, and got tries off it.”
Cambuslang took an early lead through a Senter penalty, only for East Kilbride to respond with a penalty of their own from Dryburgh several minutes later.
Senter then scored a try, but missed the conversion, before a try by Steel, converted by Dryburgh, gave East Kilbride a two point lead at the break.
East Kilbride then extended their lead with a converted try, again by Steel before another Senter penalty and a Greg Morrison try cut into the deficit. However Cambuslang couldn’t convert any of their late opportunities, turning the ball over with five minutes to go when in a good position, and then seeing Senter miss his last gasp penalty.
But the Lang coach is seeing positives from his players already this year, ahead of a home match at Coat’s Park against Greenock Wanderers on Saturday.
He added: “It was still a really positive game for us. The guys played well, and our defence put a lot of pressure on East Kilbride. We forced them into making mistakes and I felt we had the upper hand in the game, save for that final third.
“I felt we were the better side – the last time we played we lost 48-0, so this was a massive improvement for the guys.
“We always play better at home with a bit of support, so we are confident we can come away with the win.”