East Kilbride junior sections get back to league action
East Kilbride Rugby Club’s junior section finally emerged from summer hibernation to get the 2017-18 season up and running at the weekend.
The under-18s league campaign got off to a disappointing start before the match as they travelled to Motherwell to take on Dalziel with only 12 men — thereby conceding the points in advance. Despite being short-staffed, EK still performed well and actually ‘won’ the game.
Pressed into service at standoff, Matthew Smith showed his allround rugby skills when throwing an outrageous dummy before darting over for the opening EK score and at the half EK were a creditable 12-7 down.
The second period saw EK belie their numerical disadvantage with tries from Euan Ferrie, Grant Dryburgh and a penalty try seeing them finish 28-26 to the good.
The Sixteens had a much easier afternoon, romping home 74-12 against the same opponents.
EK had far too much in the tank in terms of skill and early-season fitness and ran in 12 tries spread across David McGiven (4), Euan Stirling (2), Rory Blackwood, Cameron Rennie, Cameron McMillan, Ewan Mossman, Lucas Aitken and Logan Cameron, with Fraser Jackson converting just over half of them.
The under-14s were hampered by the loss of inspirational Callum Ferrie to an early head knock that will keep him out for a few weeks and came up short against Dalziel.
Tries came from the hard running Ryan Mograbbi and Ruaridh Patrick, while there were significant defensive contributions from Bradley Wilson and Andrew Roxburgh.
Meanwhile, the U13s were surprised by their tough encounter with Dalziel, having disposed of the Motherwell side with ease over the past few seasons.
EK trailed 8-6 at the half, Luca Galgani and Ri Murphy scoring for the home side, while Dalziel profited from two penalty tries awarded when the referee took exception to unorthodox last-gasp tackles from Dylan Gardiner and Galgani. EK snatched victory through a late Liam Kenny touchdown.
The Primary Six squad picked up a major scalp in taking down a Cumnock squad that has consistently given them problems with their physicality. Cumnock’s relatively one-dimensional approach, constantly funnelling the ball to one or two big ball carriers, has defeated this iteration of EKRFC since P1.
But improved tackling and no Plan B from Cumnock saw EK take the spoils with tries from Jack McCorqudale and Declan McCluskey.
The Primary Four boys and girls had their first venture into full-contact rugby and took to it jolly well.
Finlay McKinnon, Zach McQueen and Scott Brown in particular looked the part, perhaps attributable to coming from many generations of rugby stock, combining pace and physicality for EK to comfortably win 12 tries to five.
The P3s travelled to Cumnock with a sizeable squad but came up short, losing 15-13, tries spread across George Campbell, Max McQueen, Andrew Kinchington, Olivier Orenses, Jamie Russell and Luke McCudden. The P1/2 squad went even closer but still lost, 8-7 to the Ayrshire side, with tries for Joseph Quinn (4), Jacob Wright and Jamie Dale.
Finally, the girls section were also in action as they hosted regular foes Cartha Queens Park.
The Glasgow side are one of the top outfits in the country and there was huge encouragement for EK in the increased physicality of the girls, Kirsty Ritchie, Charlie Fleming, Hannah McMahon and new recruit Courtney Fitzsimmons particularly prominent.
Most pleasing though was the fact that the club were simultaneously able to field sides at U15 and U18 level, quite an achievement for a section only around 18 months old but picking up new players every week.