East Kilbride...28 Garnock...12
East Kilbride Rugby Club player/boss Allan Steel insists being sin-binned was the catalyst for their vital victory over Garnock.
The Torrance House side concluded their 2018/19 season with a hard-fought win over an extremely physical side.
EK had to win to keep their title hopes alive, but Steel’s yellow card for a high tackle early in the second half – with the sides remarkably locked at 0-0 – stacked the odds in the visitors’ favour.
Yet Steel insisted: “That was actually the turning point for us.
“It galvanised the boys and they really stood up to the challenge.
“In the first half, we had been playing to Garnock’s strengths.
“They are such a strong defensive unit we knew getting the four tries for the bonus-point win was always going to be difficult.
“So it was disappointing for me, as a senior figure, to put them in that situation.
“But they were fantastic. Once I got back on we took the game away from Garnock.
“They really dug in and what made it even more special was we managed to get the four tries we needed in those circumstances.”
The victory leaves East Kilbride’s record showing 19 wins and three defeats, and as things stand, they sit top of the table.
But with Allan Glens and Greenock Wanderers still having games to play – including against each other on April 20 – the title still looks to be a long shot.
Unusually for rugby, the sides were locked at 0-0 after 40 minutes, but the home side had been forced to dig in for the entire half, the greater physicality of the Ayrshire side being the dominant feature of the period.
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The second half though was a different matter.
The pace and precision of East Kilbride’s young backline ripped Garnock apart time and again.
There were tries for inspirational captain Mark Ellison, Callum Simpson, Roddy Beaton and Scott Shankie, who also converted all four.
Steel added: “We set ourselves a target of 15 points from our final three games and that’s exactly what we go, so I’m delighted.
“That’s what we had to do to give ourselves any chance of winning the league, so now we just have to see what happens.
“Hopefully it will be enough, but it’s going to come down to what happens between Greenock and Allan Glens in a couple of weeks.
“If Greenock win all their games with a bonus points they’ll finish a few points ahead of us.
“I’m proud of the boys’ effort not just in this game, but over the whole season.
“Regardless of what happens, they have been fantastic.”
East Kilbride now face a wait to see when / if either of their challengers are able to overhaul their total of 93 points in the weeks to come.
TEAM: 1. Aitken, 2. Anderson, 3. Mclellan, 4. McLean, 5. Irvine, 6. O’Neil, 7. R. Beaton, 8. Middleton, 9. Ellison, 10. Murray, 11. Simpson, 12. Shankie, 13. Stott, 14. L.Brown, 15. Dryburgh.
Replacements: Steel, Blackwood and Smith.
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