Weather disruptions and Six Nation matches have led to a frustrated Allan Steel, EK's rugby coach. So he was a happy man last night when his team played a friendly against local rivals Uddingston.

It was a foul night, raining throughout but it gave EK's squad a chance to shake some cobwebs. And three of them augmented the Uddingston side - Ross Stewart, Alex Irvine and Andy Kampman.

Despite the scoreline, it was not all one way traffic. EK scored three tries in the first 10 minutes, two by centre cum flyer Ian Brown, but Uddingston were gutsy and had a spell of some 20 minutes in the EK half.

A concern for the EK coaching team would be the penalty count, despite their lead on the scoreboard. Conceding 9 penalties to 2 considering their overall superiority was damning. Thankfully int he 2nd half, EK only lost the penalty count 3-2.

Ian Brown got five tries (four in first half), with the others shared across Yo Yo (Gary Thornton), Sparky Ellison, Scott Shankie, Gareth Jones, Craig (Fat but now slimmer) Ferguson and Craig Ferguson Junior. Scott Shankie got 7 conversions.

One final comment - centre Grant Seymour needs to go back to Mini rugby to learn how to use an overlap. He blew two simple overlaps by shocking passing and it is probably an insult to the Minis to even compare his passing to theirs!

Thanks also to the smiling chef that we all know as Alex Gilmour, for rustling up some pasta for the team after the match (team because Uddingston's players all disappeared off to Edinburgh immediately after the game).