Winning start for new coach
Cambuslang Rugby Club’s new coach got off to a winning start in his first competitive game on Saturday.
Cambus made the trip down to Castle Douglas, and returned home with a good 45-28 win in the preliminary round of the BT Shield competition.
The victory delighted coach Robbie Stewart, particularly given the side’s stop-start pre-season, due to player unavailability.
But tries from James McLaren, David Wood, Grant Adie and four from Gregor Jones put Cambus through to the next round, with Gregor converting five tries. Cambus expected a tough game, having been beaten 36-33 away to Stewartry in the league in September last year.
And Robbie said: “The boys weren’t slow on picking up on that, and we can take a lot of encouragement from that.
“We didn’t play particularly well in the first half, and we were only four points ahead at half-time, but then after that, we pretty much dominated it for the rest of the game.
“We managed to pull away from them without making too many changes from what we’ve been doing in pre-season, being more direct and careful with the ball, and some flair took over as we went on to score the tries we did, which was great.
“Their defence was very good, but they took advantage of some defensive lapses on our part later on, while we had two or three chances that we didn’t put away.”
However, the scoreline was much closer than it should have been, as a result of Cambus finishing the game with 14 men after having a player shown the yellow card.
Robbie explained: “There was a bit of gloss taken off it later on as we were on their line and attacking them, and then we had a sin binning, and lost a couple of scores in the last seven or eight minutes when we had a man off the park.
“That was frustrating as there was a quite significant points swing in their favour and our win could have been far more comfortable.
“Ideally, I’d have liked us to get another tr y in that period, but unfortunately that wasn’t to be the case.”
Robbie also saw a real difference in his side’s mentality, between the way they approached the pre-season friendlies, and the way they went into Saturday’s shield match.
He added: “There was no doubt with it being a competitive game that the phony war was over.
“I could see the guys were a lot more focussed with that competitive edge, which hadn’t always been there beforehand.
“That was what we had been missing, and it’s funny how friendly games seem to suit some, but not others.
“The result at 4.45pm wasn’t what I had been anticipating, and I was really pleased with what I saw.”