WD managed to salvage a point against Cambuslang at the weekend but will feel hard done by not to get more.
Our Visitors got on the score sheet very early, catching the ball from the kick off and shipping it wide to their outside centre that managed to find a gap in a WD defence and ran over the home sides try line. A very disappointing start to a game that we spoke about having to meet head on. Cambuslang converted to take the score to 7-0.
The boys in Navy&Gold answered this very well by getting back down into the visiting teams half and with some good ball movement and hard work from the forwards, Midnight Gibson managed to put young Vann Smith into enough space for him to speed into the corner and touch down. Gordon Milne was not able to convert from the wide angle but the game was back on par and everything was to play for.
WD spent the majority of the half camped inside the Cambuslang half, but compounding errors proved fatal as Cambuslang managed to get possession back and kick the ball to touch and move play back into the WD Half. This was obviously frustrating for the home side who had been pushing for a score .From the line out, a silly late tackle from Collin saw him get a warning and 2 minutes later a late, high tackle was deemed enough for him to be sent walking, although the referee didn’t seem to think the kick out and punches thrown by the Cambuslang Scrum half were enough to even warn him about. WD down to 14 men.
As the whistle blew at half time, the chat was to keep possession and turn up the work rate, as we were a man down we needed to cut out the mistakes and make sure we kept hold of the ball.
As the second half started, another blow to WD was dealt as another back row player was given his matching order. Matty Coen got his timing wrong in a tackle, and as he tried to shift his weight from his back to front foot, he effectively performed a dump tackle on the Cambuslang Scrum Half (who must have felt he was getting picked on by the home team). Again the punches thrown by the visiting 9 in retaliation were not considered worth chat from the referee as he slayed WD down to 13 men.
Cambuslang made the most of their 2 man advantage and scored 2 tries in quick succession. The first from a line out where the tail gunner caught an over throw and raced through a gap to cross the whitewash, in close pursuit was the Cambuslang full back who, after good passing sequence from their back line, score from the natural 2 on 1 created out wide.
WD Pulled back 2 scores, good play from Phil Mackenzie pushed WD deep into the Cambuslang half
And a good team effort edged us forward to about 15meters from the visitors try line, and on his 1st XV debut, Callum Innes managed to cross the line in the corner.
Cambuslang scored another try to put them onto 24 points, which WD responded to with another score, this time coming from Matty Coey. The conversion was also added taking the home team tally to 17. Unfortunately the clock was not on our side as the game ended 17-24 in favour of Cambuslang.
After the match Coach Collins agreed that if we had 15 men on the field for the full game, the score would have been different. We struggled with some of the referee’s decision but we have to learn how to play with different refs. The Loosing bonus point was better than no points at all and we can take positives from the guts we showed to keep ourselves within touching distance of the win.
This weekend WD visit local rivals Cumbernauld for the first of two meetings this season and are under no illusions of how tough it is going to be. None the less, we are going here looking 100% for the win and are prepared for the hard work it is going to take to get.
Kick off 3pm at Cumbernauld…not one to miss!