Cumnock S2 9 East Kilbride 10

Report by Morton Houston

Both teams were very committed and there was much on show to admire, East Kilbride started off the brighter and looked to utilise their wide players at every opportunity. Despite brave Cumnock tackling East Kilbride struck first to take the lead with a converted try.

Cumnock upped their game and there were a number of bright runs by Finlay Wallace, Rob Drummond and Jamie Drummond before Andy Houston should some neat footwork to finish off for a try. This saw the end of the first of 3 20 minute periods.

The second half started off disastrously for Cumnock as the kick off wasn’t claimed and trundled through to the 20 metre line. Scott Grierson went down bravely on the ball put East Kilbride chased well, gathered the ball and scored for an unconverted try. Cumnock rolled up their sleeves at this point and attacked repeatedly against determined East Kilbride defenders. Eventually Dylan Chidwick spied a gap and ran blind round a ruck and dived in to score in the corner.

East Kilbride finished the scoring in the second period with a sweeping move which saw their outside centre outstrip the Cumnock defence and score in the corner. The whistle blew for the end of the period following an all encompassing tackle by Ashley Popowitz who had his best game of the season.

The last period was a very tight affair with both teams going close. It looked as if the 2 defences would prevent any tries until Jamie Drummond saw a half chance and hacked the ball through. Using good footballing skills he kicked the ball a further twice before winning the footrace to score.

At 3 tries apiece Cumnock were a bit unfortunate to lose out to a single conversion.

Coach Billy Ramsay said after the game, “ This was a big improvement on games earlier this season against strong teams. The forwards were a bit more aggressive and the backs had their usual strong game. There is still a lot of improvements to be made, our physicality at rucks and mauls is still short of the mark and we need to some work on our scrums and lineouts which were both under pressure.”

Next week Cumnock train at 6:30 – 7:30 at Auchinleck Academy astro and they play Strathaven away from home on Sunday.