East Kilbride 3 Strathaven 15

Near neighbours, Strathaven, dropped in to Torrance House on Saturday, and they were looking for more than a cup of sugar! Some poor handling and the concession of far too many penalties gave Strathaven attacking opportunities which they used to score two tries, one of which was converted, and a penalty to East Kilbride's (EK) solitary penalty, converted by George Fisher, in the first half.

There was no further scoring during the second period and though EK mounted a number of attacks on the Strathaven line their efforts proved fruitless as Line-outs malfunctioned, allowing our visitors to clear their lines.

This loss could be put down to a number of factors - poor conditions, a team depleted by injuries both before and during the game - but in reality the two problems that beset the EK performance were handling errors and the number of penalties they gave away in the first half. No individual player shone on the day but one thing that did satisfy was seeing the scrum more than hold its own in the set piece so, for that alone, the front row union, Harry Taggart, Evan Middleton and Alistair Marriot, who were well supported by those behind them, are this week's players of the match.

With league rugby on hold until January 13th, when EK travel to Kilmarnock, players, coaches etc. have time to rest and, hopefully, recuperate. With 6 league games still to play, 4 at Torrance House, EK must prepare themselves for the January to April period and look to put in performances that will see them move back up the table.