RUGBY ACTION
Burgh’s young side struggle with visiting forwards
Whilst never entirely convincing, East Kilbride righted their mildly listing ship with a win at Helensburgh and curtailed a mini-run of two unsightly draws.
Nominally, player-coach Fraser Watt is still rotating his squad but there seems now, even at the half-way stage of the season, to be a degree of last-man standing as injuries start to bite.
Thus, there was a little mixing and matching in the front five and not too much change beyond this.
East Kilbride had hammered Helensburgh earlier in the season but Saturday presented a much younger, fitter set of opponents.
The home team’s backline in particular looked pretty sharp, as sharp even as East Kilbride’s backs had in the first few weeks of the season.
Unfortunately for the ‘Burgh backs, they struggled to get any decent possession in the face of EK’s dominant forwards.
Unfortunately for EK, though, the match official too often refused to believe the evidence of his own eyes and regularly penalised EK.
However, it was not the referee’s doing that EK consistently dropped the ball or took daft options when they were able to retain possession.
As a consequence of way too many mistakes East Kilbride failed to throttle the life out of their hosts and it was only in the last fifteen minutes that the game was secured, albeit minus the important fourth try bonus.
This was a day for 40 minutes of forward power and relentless kicking from the half-backs before looking to open up once ‘Burgh were out on their feet, but if possession is lost in contact as many times as EK surrendered it on Saturday then pressure slowly built is quickly released.
For the record, tries went to Evan Middleton, Bert Blackwood and Callum Aitken with Blackwood kicking the remainder.
The performance was probably better than most from the last five or six weeks preceding but still amounted to little more than a five out of ten.
The win was secured though and the position atop the league retained,
This Saturday East Kilbride host Oban.
Kick-off at Torrance House is the earlier time of 2pm.
TEAM: 1. Mclellan, 2. Anderson, 3. Watt, 4. S. Ferguson, 5. Rosie, 6. McLaren, 7. O’Neil, 8. Middleton, 9. Stott, 10. B. Blackwood, 11. Green, 12. Dixon, 13. Greenfield, 14. R. Beaton, 15. Ellison.
Replacements: E. Beaton, Aitken, C. Ferguson Snr and Murray.
Meanwhile, EK’s reserves made it four wins from five league games with a victory over an Annan side which deserves huge credit for travelling north with only 12 players.
They worked their socks off in the first half and despite EK scoring three tries in the first 10 minutes only trailed 17-10 as the half.
Not unnaturally, fatigue kicked in as the game progressed and EK ran in a further five unanswered tries.
Scores went to Tom Hughes (2), Gregor Haggerty (2), Sam Hume (2), David Rosie Jnr and Ross Campbell, with James McKinnon and Patrick Quigg sharing kicking duties.
Elsewhere, the under-18’s were 19-12 winners over Livingston. Ethan Aitken, Sam Park and Callum Field scored EK’s points.
The under-16’s and under-14’s also enjoyed wins over Livingston, recording 45-29 and 44-22 victories, respectively. EAST KILBRIDE N’ton Stewart Carrick Garnock Allan Glens Annan Kilmarnock Oban Lorne Irvine Helensburgh P W 10 8 9 7 10 7 10 6 10 5 9 3 10 4 9 3 10 1 9 1 L 0 0 2 4 5 6 5 6 9 8 D DIF PT 2 14242 2 16936 1 11036 0 62 30 0 6 26 0 -12 19 1 -92 19 0 -20 14 0 -165 10 0 -200 8
Next fixture: Oban (H) Saturday, 2pm